Педагогические науки/ 6.Социальная педагогика

Бересток О.В.

Кобжев О.М.

Сумской национальный аграрный университет, Украина

The development of adult learning strategies in South Eastern European countries

“Learning does no stop when you finish school or university. We live in a rapidly changing world in the information age and our workforce must make sure it has the general skills required by our demanding globalised environment. Also, as our society ages, it is more important than ever before that adults continue to learn new skills or refresh old knowledge throughout their lives.” ( Ján Figel’ European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism).

The necessity of unremitting education is generally well understood and some people nowadays would query the importance for adults to persistently update their skills in line with needs of labor market, and for governments and social partners to provide an environment that supports skills acquisition and updating. Nevertheless, it is clear when we consider data from the European Union Member States that a great deal of lifelong education takes place in the framework of the context of employment: it can be given, financed and outsourced by employers, making it strictly relevant to the needs of the workplace. We realize that access to such learning possibilities is not evenly spread across the working population. They are more likely to appear in bigger companies and to be targeted at the better educated staff in middle-ranking positions. What can this imply for lifelong learning in the countries of South Eastern Europe? These countries suffer from high unemployment and low economic activity rates, so very big amount of the active people are immediately barred from workplace education. Hence, those who are working are most likely to be acting so in the informal sector or in small or micro-enterprises. The aim of the investigation of lifelong learning is to look at how its strategies can be developed in such an environment, using recent data collected from South Eastern Europe, and to provide guidance to those countries and others operating in a similar context. It underlines the necessity for more attention to be paid to workplace learning and to exploit the potential of enterprises as providers of unremitting learning.

Adult learning is a branch of science that has so far been neglected in education and training reforms in South Eastern European countries and areas but which has its source to emerge as an important policy. This investigation aims to provide national policy with debate and development in adult learning. It establishes the development of adult learning strategies in the context of transition, the importance to adapt to the demand for new ways of skills in the open market and to be sure that people who do not work and young people starting to work have the employability competence to compete in the labor market. It also necessary to take an account of the skills efficient to people dislocated by the war accompanied by the break-up of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and the need for innovation competences to build trust and reconcile divided organizations. It provides a synthesis of the adult education strategies developed by local authorities in Croatia, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia under the European Training Foundation’s adult learning development project. It takes into account the countries’ stocktaking data and the discussions with representatives from the region in regional seminars and workshops provided by the members of a forum with the exchange of country intelligence. The report is presented on the European Training Foundation documents and reviews and shows the international literature on adult learning as well as the first national adult learning strategy documents. It gives the examples of good practice from the European Union and South Eastern Europe, taking into account the recent experience of such countries as Hungary.

The basic problems that are barriers to developing adult education in the region and the principles on which comprehensive adult learning strategies are to be built should be taken into account. Moreover, the importance of creating a positive environment that encourages collective effort in the countries with a view to developing and funding adult learning, increasing participation across the board, and involving vulnerable people, should also be carefully investigated. They consider strength and weaknesses in the adult unremitting learning infrastructure and make certain suggestions as to how these might be addressed over the recent period of time. The scope of adult learning spans all formal, non-formal and informal education undertaken by adults to “improve knowledge, skills and competences” (European Commission, 2001, p. 9) for the aims of work, employment, personal interest and social activity.

The main focus in the investigation however, is on the skills that learners need to be able to adapt and stay employable in the open market and the employability opportunities that help people to avoid unemployment and marginal employment. Despite the characteristic value of all learning, we believe that the first priority for governments, in the context of transition and inefficient financial resources, is to concentrate on the competences that support economic growth, competitiveness and employment and, hence skills that people in charge to enter into profitable employment or self-employment, to remain employable and to avoid poverty and social exclusion. The concentration is therefore on learning depending on employment, which is underpinned by the European employment objectives.

The quality of human and social capital is a basic determinant of wealth creation, future economic growth and social progress in any wealth creation and social progress in any country. If we take no action to raise overall skill levels in the transition countries and areas in question, this is probably to be a key constraint on productivity and competitiveness, but also on efforts to reduce poverty. While it is self-evident that improving skills across the board will not tackle chronic unemployment or reverse economic decline on its own, investment in people’s skills is a central part of integrated measures to solve these problems.

The overall objectives of an adult education strategy are to improve the competitiveness of the economy and the labor force by enhancing the general skill level of the workforce and making people more adaptable and able to take and cope with change, as well as to promote the social goals of equity and participation. These are general lifelong learning purposes that are related to initial learning and training and adult education. They are also in one line with the general objectives of the European Union’s economic and unremitting learning strategies. In order to gain these objectives and help overcome the difficulties in adult learning in South Eastern Europe, strategies are to be based on some principles of good governance. These principles include a clear policy provided by government in adult learning; the sharing of responsibilities for policy and strategy formulation, action designing and implementation including the social partnership and other stakeholders; the adjustment of provision in the framework of learning proposals, modes and settings to suit learners’ needs; a shift in balance to support employee development; and a rational financing system that achieves a balance between efficiency and equality objectives.

Implementing adult learning strategies, creating diverse learning opportunities for all and raising participation hinge on whether governments and stakeholders play their crucial part in promoting a learning culture and increasing the value of learning for enterprises and individuals. Government and employers should visibly and concretely signal the importance of learning for economic competitiveness and individual employability. The government needs to take the leading part in developing and finding the resources for adult learning in consultation with main partners. This means that all the relevant ministries have to contribute, within their areas of responsibility, to the formulation of the strategy and its implementation, which is a long-term commitment. Determining ministerial responsibilities and departmental budget commitments to adult education, having a shared vision, sharing priorities and adopting an integrated approach are complex points, but they are essential for the coherent and comprehensive development of adult learning, the optimal implementation of public and private resources and mutually reinforcing actions. An important catalyst for partnership working is the shift in governance apart from central control to frameworks that empower stakeholders. New coordinating structures at national and regional levels are necessary. The membership of a future national council for adult unremitting learning would need to reflect the set of interests involving all the relevant ministries, the social partners, the employment service and the (macro) regions, if relevant. Such a council would act as a useful sounding board for providing informed opinion and advice to the government on strategy suggestions and action plans, and holding their implementation on. The immediate task of this partnership could be to define the adult learning strategy, the priorities in line with government guidelines and the responsibility for delivery. The council could see the drafting and monitoring of National Employment Action Plans in line with the European Employment Strategy over; provide common supervision of infrastructure and relevant structures; ensure the whole planning and monitoring of national, European Union and other donor interventions in partnership with the organizations in charge, as well as supervise lower-level partnerships. Below national level, regional partnerships are important in bringing the designing and delivery of adult learning closer to the place of residence and work and ensuring that provision meets labor market necessities more effectively. These partnerships could identify the main learning needs of their areas through labor market assessments; assess the supply of learning opportunities and how provision might be developed; coordinate research and survey work; ensure the quality of learning offers within the region; assist the employment service in its provisions for unemployed ; and possibly allocate government and donor funds within the region. Effective partnerships rely on consultation and open dialogue. They work best when there is legitimacy, mutual respect, a shared vision and common aims, and when partners have a great desire to work commonly.

To establish and run successful partnerships, South Eastern European countries require substantial capacity-building and support. The strategic objectives of an adult learning strategy can be achieved through a series of special measures, each of which needs its own action plan, budget and implementation of timetable. The measures must be realistic, concrete, achievable, measurable and time-bound and they must be broken down to cover the short, medium and longer term. Basic measures to implement the adult learning strategy include the improvement of basic skills by low-skilled adults and overall support to the acquisition of skills relevant for the market economy. Responsibility for the allocation of resources and the development of appropriate measures to address the basic skills problem in South Eastern Europe clearly correlates with government. Improving basic skills and key competences is likely to be successful when learning is meaningful and relates to people’s prior knowledge and competence, and when occupational skills are integrated into the curriculum. Investment would need to be made in teacher training and in developing adult-friendly learning environments and processes. Whilst ministries may prefer to work through formal public institutions, there are advantages to opening up training to a wider range of providers and consortia following a competitive bidding procedure. NGOs are closer to hard-to-reach populations. Partners need to work together to develop local services and adjust provision to meet the scale and pattern of demand. Employers can make a valuable contribution by providing information on the key competences that are likely to increase prospects for employment and, perhaps, by offering work placements. The partnership would need to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of local skills provision. The approach that employers should be responsible for training their own employees has not been entirely successful in ensuring a sufficient level of company training. In many EU Member States, governments have intervened to try to achieve a more efficient solution. Where financial considerations prevent companies from offering training, the case for providing targeted financial incentives can be made. It may be possible, for example, to provide free or subsidized assessments of training needs or of the existing stock of skills of small and medium-sized enterprises, or to fund training for workers under threat of redundancy in enterprises facing restructuring. Joint funding arrangements between employers and the employment service are also useful, for example in apprenticeship schemes. A number of EU countries have experimented with levy schemes. Financial incentives for individuals to undertake training also boost participation, although they may be difficult to administer and may not reach low-skilled people without appropriate targeting built into the framework conditions of programs and the selection of beneficiaries. Ensuring that the managers of leading companies are well trained and competent will lead to better business performance and higher overall training levels. Governments and their partners from the private sector can promote this by introducing high standards in business and management training, and by assisting intermediary bodies and providers that support management development. Formal management training courses should be assessed to ensure that what they offer is in line with best practice in other more developed economies. In order to increase the transfer of management training expertise, existing links between institutions in different countries could be expanded. Centers for management training could be established to bring together existing providers, to develop their provision to suit new and established companies and to meet the needs of different regional and local economic profiles. A key aspect of successful management training is flexibility and the diversity of provision and quality. A thorough understanding of a company’s market position and how it could be improved is the basis of a company’s business strategy and for identifying the contribution that employees can make by upgrading their skills and competence. Further capacity-building is necessary for the design of human resource development (HRD) strategies and the creation of learning systems. Networks of companies involved and interested in management training could be established at an appropriate level. This action is likely to be taken forward by the economic and crafts chambers or other employers’ associations and larger enterprises which might act as mentors for other companies, and in particular for small businesses. Managers would benefit from a better use of the power of trade associations, entrepreneurs’ networks, standard-setting agencies, quality centers and technology networks. Clusters in particular have the potential to enhance access to information, services, technology and specialized skills. Special programs for managers could help them to overcome any hesitation they may have in forming and supporting the development of clusters, which are geographically focused groups of related businesses and institutions. They typically include buyers and suppliers, distributors, related service firms, training organizations or others. Specialized courses could be delivered locally to train people on cluster support technology, the economic and regulatory environment and aspects related to human resource development. Some people could develop as experts in certain clusters. Small laboratories placed within a cluster could be funded and would provide local solutions to local problems. An important area of support within clusters could be the use of information and communication technologies and the development of related e-skills. Governments, the social partners and intermediary organizations could complement the above mentioned efforts by carrying out campaigns to raise awareness among managers about the benefits of training and by reducing regulatory or administrative burdens affecting entrepreneurial activity and training.

The adult learning strategy must make the best use of all adult learning providers. There is currently little information on their numbers and types in each country and territory, or on the quality of their provision. Once this information is available it should be possible to identify serious gaps in provision at different levels and in different areas, and for the regional or local partnership to encourage networking and links between providers and users. Key priorities for providers include training the trainers to ensure that learning is based on up-to-date teaching practice and updating its content to meet new labour market needs. Adult learning represents a demanding and complex challenge for teachers and trainers of adults. Adult learners need to have choices and be able to influence which courses or programs they follow. Teachers and learners both share responsibility. Adult learning supply has to be open and expanded to provide a wide range of learning offers, in diverse settings, using appropriate methodologies. It also has to make learning attractive, interesting and meaningful for adults. The environment, organization and content of learning are important. Many adults learn best when learning conditions and relations between teachers and learners are warm and tolerant. Learners welcome a participant-centered approach. When the content of learning is based on real life or work issues related to the learners, this helps people make connections between prior knowledge and experience and new learning.

Meaningful indicators of the quality of adult learning provision include: allowing adult participants to choose courses and course content; the availability of a wide variety of adult learning opportunities; a favorable learning environment and course content based on real issues; and, the existence of a system for the continuing training of adult teachers and trainers. It is important that stakeholders in the learning system have confidence in its operations. Individuals want to know that what they have learnt is recognized, is of high quality and of benefit to them. Employers want to know, when recruiting people, that their qualifications meet recognized national standards. It is therefore recommended that frameworks for national qualifications are developed. Assessing an individual’s prior learning and experience is another aspect of accreditation that helps to improve access to learning and shape learning by providing a demonstrable base on which further learning can be built. In addition, anyone undertaking formal learning will want to know whether the provider is efficient and effective in what it is supplying. Countries may have a system of accreditation or certification of providers, using national guidelines and possibly regional administration to reduce and shorten bureaucratic procedures.

Accreditation systems need to ensure that private providers are financially sound, that they are not making exaggerated claims in their publicity literature, and that their pedagogy and teaching are appropriate. With regard to monitoring and evaluation, at the national level there needs to be a mechanism for regularly reviewing the progress of the adult learning strategy as a whole. This would cover both the process – for example, national and regional partnerships – and the outputs. The latter would, for example, include tracking how many people are trained in particular skills, whether they gained a qualification (if applicable) and whether those whose training was intended to get them into work have in fact got jobs. This will help to establish whether publicly funded adult learning programs are meeting their objectives and giving good value for money. In order for evaluation to have credibility it needs to be undertaken by an independent professional body.

As education and employment options have become more volatile, less secure and less transparent, people potentially need more support in finding their way through the education system and into the labour market. The importance of career guidance and its contribution to policy goals in lifelong learning, labour market efficiency and social inclusion is widely acknowledged in the EU. Guidance also includes the development of an individual’s career management skills through any form of education, including adult learning.

What is needed in South Eastern Europe, where respective schemes are underdeveloped, is a policy and legislative framework for the provision of high-quality lifelong guidance provision for all citizens, including adults. The framework would need to specify the roles, responsibilities and mechanisms for cooperation between public education and labour market authorities at national, regional and local levels; the infrastructure and information used; the standards of guidance delivery and the qualifications of guidance experts; and the mechanisms for including other key stakeholders, such as social partners, guidance agencies, parent, young people and consumer associations, and guidance practitioners in policy and systems development. There is a need in the short term to develop a strategy for data collection for adult learning, labour market intelligence and future skills forecasting. The aims of the strategy would be to increase the quality and number of relevant datasets, to fill gaps and systematize mechanisms for collecting data, and to develop capacity to analyze trends and forecast future needs. Public and private training providers including NGOs could provide participation data at the time of enrolment. Companies could include training data in their annual business reports. In drawing up financing strategies, countries and territories must pursue two main objectives. The first is to ensure an adequate level of investment in adult learning, which means increasing the aggregate finance level from all sources. Incentives are needed to encourage (co)investment in learning by companies and individuals. The second aim is to ensure an equitable distribution of adult learning, which is currently biased in favor of the more advantaged members of society and larger enterprises or certain sectors. Unless societies can increase the lifelong learning participation of groups who are currently excluded or underrepresented, there is a risk of widening existing social divides.

Finance is one of the crucial policy levers for balancing efficiency and equity gains, but information is essential for underpinning this balance. The lack of adequate resources hinders the development of adult learning. In most countries expenditure on education and training is seen as a cost by individuals and employers rather than an investment for the future. The fact that value-added tax is imposed on course fees gives the wrong signal when the focus should be on encouraging people to learn. Some incentives, such as the voucher system in Serbia, can be attractive for individuals. Others, such as introducing tax incentives to encourage companies and/or individuals to invest in training, could work in some countries, but are not an option for countries where tax collection systems are weak. Creative solutions can be found to encourage companies and individuals to participate more widely in education and training. There is a number of incentives and financing mechanisms available to companies or individuals that exist in other countries. Donor or other funds are likely to be available in all countries and territories: these could be pooled or redistributed to adult learning. However, South Eastern European countries need to prioritize the population groups and economic sectors that should be targeted by national programs. Steps that could be taken in the short term to build consensus and provide a basis for developing a comprehensive adult learning strategy and its subsequent implementation include an agreement within government of: a timetable for increased resources to be spent on education and learning, specifying the share to be allocated to adult learning; the establishment of a ‘learning partnership’, bringing together relevant ministries and the various stakeholders with a view to considering the priority areas for action and funding in adult learning; strengthening the policy capacity of the lead ministry and other relevant ministries to develop a comprehensive strategy for adult learning in consultation with key stakeholders; and, the development of partnerships at and below national level (e.g. allocation of funds, definition of functions, membership, objectives) and capacity-building for ministries, social partners and other stakeholders to enable them to engage in effective partnerships, using international experience and donor or expert assistance.

The scarcity of resources across South Eastern Europe warrants concentration on a few priority actions. These could include a policy and action plan for the development of work-based learning, particularly management and entrepreneurship training for small businesses, as well as the development of special programs to address particular skills shortages, where there is robust evidence of demand and where the training cannot be met by employers; to improve basic literacy and occupational skills including key competences; and to expand and develop active labour market measures for the registered unemployed and inactive people seeking work.