Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Action Plan on adult learning — It is always a good time to learn COM(2007) 558 final
Date: 2008-03-13
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: action programme, adult education, continuing education, continuing vocational training, education policy

9.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

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Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Communication from the
Commission to the Council,
the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Action Plan on adult learning — It is always a good
time to learn

the European Parliament,

COM(2007) 558 final

(2008/C 204/19)

On 27 September 2007, the European Commission decided to consult the European Economic and Social
Committee, under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Action Plan on adult learning — It is always a good time to learn.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 21 February 2008. The rapporteur was
Ms Heinisch. The co-rapporteurs were Ms Le Nouail Marlière and Mr Rodríguez García-Caro.

At its 443rd plenary session, held on 12 and 13 March (meeting of 13 March), the European Economic and
Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 117 votes to nil with one abstention.

1. Conclusions and recommendations

The Committee welcomes the European Commission's
1.1
move to open up a new facet of its education and training work
programme through its first action plan on adult learning It is
always a good time to learn, covering the period 2007-2010. The
Committee backs the plan, subject to the comments set out in
this opinion.

1.2
The Committee is pleased that, thirteen years after their
introduction, the European programmes designed to promote
adult learning are, for the first time, to be given their own poli-
tical working base. The Commission communication on adult
learning (1) that preceded the action plan, did, as it itself indi-
cates, have a twofold objective: to prepare the ground for the
‘Grundtvig’ (2) programme on the one hand, and to formulate a
corresponding political action plan for adult learning on the
other.

The Committee regrets that this first plan does not yet
1.3
include among its priorities the expansion of non-vocational
adult learning, i.e. the non-formal and informal learning oppor-
tunities that people — those in employment and others — need
to further their overall personal development and strengthen
democratic citizenship. It notes that the action plan devotes a
great deal of attention to the familiar objectives — which the
Committee also supports — of improving European coopera-
tion in the field of vocational training.

1.4
The Committee urges that an attractive environment
should also be created to meet the specific learning interests of
people not in employment as a conduit to their ‘active participa-
tion’ in lifelong learning.

(1) Adult learning: It is never too late to learn (COM(2006) 614 final).
(2) With his democratic and social ideas, the Danish adult educationalist N.
F.S. Grundtvig, was, in the 19th century, the inspiration behind the
movement towards residential adult education centres (German: Heim-
volkshochschulen). From 2001, the European Commission named the
second adult education scheme under the new Socrates programme
(2001-2006) the Grundtvig Action in his honour.

Against

the backdrop of demographic change,

1.5
the
Committee feels that a major shift is needed in the way adult
learning is organised and in the topics it covers.

1.6
The Committee would also urge that, across all areas of
education and training, careful thought be given to why, in the
way they divide up their work, various tiers of education policy
continue to focus — sometimes with a degree of overlap — on
young adults, and would instead suggest
that specific adult
learning structures be put in place in all Member States and at a
European level.

1.7
The Committee urges that nothing be done that might
further marginalise smaller adult learning initiatives and facilities
— or indeed squeeze them out completely — but that, instead,
steps be taken to bolster their position.

The Committee feels that the main task of adult learning
1.8
must not be to ‘compensate’ for any shortcomings in a less-
than-effective formal education system. It is concerned that the
number of early school-leavers has risen to over 15 %. It calls
on the Member States and on the Commission to draw on the
many examples of good practice in Europe and the OECD coun-
tries to press forward with socially oriented reforms in the
educational field.

1.9
The Committee would ask the European Commission to
draw up an accompanying plan to foster gender mainstreaming.

1.10
ments on the investment required.

The Committee regrets the absence of any clear state-

1.11
The Committee recommends that greater attention be
paid to the territorial dimension of adult learning and its contri-
bution to social cohesion, particularly in regions in decline.

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1.12
The Committee regrets that no consideration has been
given to the specific types of adult teaching and learning prac-
tised in supraregional and European residential adult education
centres (German: Heimvolkshochschulen).

1.13
The Committee recommends that steps be taken to
promote new-style, multifunctional local adult education centres
incorporating new technologies and e-learning.

1.14
The Committee advocates decent working conditions
for teaching and administrative staff in the adult learning sector
and a decent, enabling learning environment for all adults.

1.15
The Committee would urge that a feasibility study be
conducted with a view to establishing, as part of the action
plan, dedicated European infrastructure for research and conti-
nuing education and training in the adult learning sector and
points out that work is also needed on the specific methods of
adult education and their dissemination.

1.16
The Committee asks that steps be taken to promote
European learning festivals as part of the international learning
festival movement, and advocates that European information
and motivation campaigns be conducted in a bid to make adult
learning more attractive.

The Committee would ask the European Commission
1.17
to give greater attention in future to the international dimension
of adult learning and to involve the Committee in developments
in this area. The Committee asks to be involved in the European
preparations for the next UN International Conference on Adult
Education (CONFINTEA VI) due to take place in Brazil in 2009.

The Committee welcomes

1.18
European Commission
moves to establish a set of core European data and secure
greater convergence in the language used, but
regrets the
absence in the planned indicators of priorities more clearly
specific to adult learning.

2. Introduction

2.1 Many European countries can look back on a long tradi-
tion of adult learning. Given its close links with movements on
social
issues such as workers' and women's rights, and with
national and suffrage movements, adult learning for a long time
had its own social and emancipatory educational agenda. Adult
learning centres and adult residential schools — designed to
include both cultural and educational dimensions and to
promote personal development and democratic citizenship for
all — came to be established in many European countries. Over
time, these were supplemented by second-chance schools, voca-
tional
training facilities and colleges deliberately aimed at,
among others, hitherto disadvantaged sectors of the population.

2.2
At European level, the focus of interest was for a long
time on vocational training, with the establishment of commit-

tees and specialised technical bodies such as CEDEFOP and the
European Training Foundation (ETF). As early as the 1970s,
European programmes started to be developed and implemented
to foster education and training opportunities for people with
disabilities, migrants, and young people with no school or voca-
tional qualifications, and to promote equal opportunities for
women on the labour market. CEDEFOP became a forum for
exchanging and appraising examples of good practice in this
area.

2.3
It was not until the introduction of lifelong learning into
the political arena that the European Commission also opened
the door to hitherto neglected areas such as adult learning, the
poor relation of education and training policy. A new stage of
wide-ranging political activity began with the adoption of
specific programmes to improve quality and innovation in areas
like adult learning (from 1995 onwards), the designation of
1996 as the European Year of Lifelong Learning, and the princi-
ples established in the Council conclusions of 20 December
1996 on a strategy for lifelong learning. On 30 October 2000,
the European Commission published the Memorandum on Life-
long Learning which maps out a strategy for the development
of a lifelong learning system and puts forward six key messages
for discussion setting the broad objectives of this system (3).

2.4
As part of the Lisbon strategy, the Council adopted deci-
sions on lifelong learning (4) and drew up the Education and
Training 2010 work programme (5) which still failed, in its initial
phase, to devote any specific attention to adult learning. In a bid
to consolidate a common European vocational education and
and Training 2010 work
training policy,
programme also kick-started the Copenhagen process, an initial
outcome of which is reflected in the Helsinki Communiqué (6)
published at the end of 2006.

Education

the

Higher education policy was also part of

the work
2.5
programme but, from 1999 under the Bologna process, had
also focused on major restructuring in a bid to create a Euro-
pean Higher Education Area. This initially marginalised moves
to open up higher education institutions to disadvantaged target
groups and relegated to the fringes the very remit of providing
university-level continuing education and training.

2.6
In addition to activities under the Education and Training
2010 work programme, the past few years have also seen Euro-
pean-level moves to secure the integrated promotion of ‘young
people's
employment and
society’ (7). No measures of this kind are yet in place for adults
in different age groups.

full participation in education,

2.7
The European Commission's New Framework Strategy for
Multilingualism (8) and its communication on a European agenda
for culture in a globalising world (9) also indirectly opened up new
pathways for adult learning.

(3) SEC(2000) 1832, 30.10.2000.
(4) Council Resolution of 27 June 2002 on lifelong learning, OJ C 163,

9.7.2002.

(5) Detailed work programme published by the Council on 14 June 2002
on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in
Europe, OJ C 142, 14.6.2002.

(6) Communiqué to review the priorities and strategies of the Copenhagen
http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/

Process, Helsinki, 5.12.2006,
default/vet2006/pdf/Helsinki_Communique_en.pdf.

(7) COM(2007) 498 final.
(8) COM(2005) 596 final, see the EESC opinion on this subject in: OJ C

324, 30.12.2006. Rapporteur: Ms Le Nouail.

(9) SEC(2007) 570 final.

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The Committee has,

2.8
in principle, welcomed and
supported European Commission activities over the past few
years in the field of lifelong learning and has adopted dedicated
opinions to back these activities up.

altering our professional and private lives, necessitating comple-
tely new knowledge and skills which adults in different age
groups had no opportunity to acquire when they were at
school, in training or in higher education.

3. Summary of the action plan

3.1
The adult learning action plan It is always a good time to
learn follows on from a Commission communication on the
same subject It is never too late to learn (10). The action plan seeks
to lay down five European-level priorities: improving the struc-
tures for governance including quality, efficiency and account-
ability in the delivery of adult learning, learning support and
recognition of learning outcomes.

The purpose of

the earlier Commission communication (11):

the action plan is to implement the
3.2
objectives of
‘to
remove barriers to participation; to increase the quality and effi-
ciency of the sector; to speed up the process of validation and
recognition; to ensure sufficient investment; and to monitor the
sector’.

The action plan focuses on those who, because of their
3.3
low level of education, inadequate vocational qualifications and/
or skills, have little prospect of successful
integration into
society.

4. General comments

4.1
The Committee is pleased that the European Commission
has drawn up a first action plan on adult learning covering the
period 2007–2010. The Committee backs this plan wholeheart-
edly, subject to the comments set out in this opinion. As the
action plan again makes clear, the purpose of the Education and
Training 2010 work programme is also to promote adult
learning as a means of fostering social cohesion, encouraging
active citizenship, facilitating a fulfilling private and professional
life and securing greater adaptability and employability.

4.2
The Committee would warn against any inefficient
overlap with vocational training objectives and projects under
the Copenhagen process, the 2005-2008 European employment
guidelines, the European Social Fund and the Leonardo da Vinci
vocational education and training programme. Particular atten-
tion is already given in this context to expanding information
and advice services,
recognising informally acquired skills,
building up and implementing the European Qualifications
Framework (EQF) and furthering good governance in vocational
training institutions.

The Committee continues to believe that all European
4.3
citizens need lifelong access to modern adult learning opportu-
nities. Throughout life, everyone should have the opportunity to
acquire, refresh and update their skills. Demographic change,
climate change, new information and communication technolo-
gies and the challenges and opportunities of globalisation are

(10) COM(2006) 614 final.
(11) Ibid.

4.4
The Committee thus regrets the absence of an integrated,
visionary concept that takes account of the learning opportu-
nities and learning needs of all adults. Moreover, the Committee
has consistently called for an enabling learning environment for
all, including people with disabilities. This generates a range of
synergies for all stakeholders, and also facilitates intergenera-
tional, intercultural and multilingual learning.

4.5
As an adjunct to the action plan, the Committee would
ask the Commission to assign to a group of adult learning
experts the task of drawing up a gender mainstreaming plan
that also includes positive action and takes due account of the
need for lifelong learning.

The Committee would draw attention to the European
4.6
reference framework for key competences (12) that every adult
should be in a position to acquire. Reference is thereby consis-
tently made to a range of pivotal concepts that can also
underpin new organisational departures and innovative teaching
methods in the field of adult learning: critical reflection, crea-
tivity,
risk assessment, decision-
initiative, problem-solving,
making and emotional intelligence.

The Committee would encourage the Commission to
4.7
consider whether the adult learning action plan might not be
enriched by an attractively staged annual European learning
festival and by information and motivation campaigns on life-
long learning in the press and on radio and television The
Committee calls on the Commission to address the need for
outreach to encourage learning among people who have
hitherto been remote from it. The Committee feels that this
personal contact with socially disadvantaged people is a key
element in moves to raise levels of education, boost adaptability
skills for all, and secure greater equality of access to lifelong
learning..

5. Specific comments

5.1
The Committee welcomes the fact that, at the outset
(point 1), the action plan not only highlights the goal of a
competitive, knowledge-based economy but also bases
its
approach on the vision of a knowledge society for all, that is
mindful of social inclusion and social cohesion. The Committee
thus also feels that any consideration of further education and
training requirements and of pathways to integration through
lifelong learning should also involve local players such as the
social partners, businesses and civil society organisations, as well
as adults placed at an educational disadvantage and their
families.

(12) COM(2005) 548 final, see also the EESC opinion on the key compe-
tences in: OJ C195, 18.8.2006. Rapporteur: Ms Herczog. Alongside
competence in communication both in the mother tongue and in
foreign languages, alongside mathematical competence and compe-
tence in science and technology, alongside digital competence and
learning to learn, other dimensions — social and civic competence,
initiative and entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and cultural expres-
sion — are also equally valid.

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that

The Committee stresses

5.1.1
the advancement of
people whom the Commission terms ‘low-skilled’ requires not
only that they themselves change, but also that steps be taken to
break down the continuing barriers to learning. The Committee
feels that, in the selection of target groups, the action plan fails
to take due account of the barriers to learning facing people
who are disadvantaged on a number of fronts, people living in
poverty, in regions and localities in decline, and in homes, insti-
tutions and secure units.

‘trading’

The Committee would warn against the risk of further
5.1.2
segregation as a result of local and supraregional
in
services for such adults, for instance in cases where the work
and welfare authorities contract out special education and
It considers that adults would react even
training measures.
more positively to opportunities for training if they were given
useful information on the state of the local and supraregional
labour market as part of their studies and if, when applying for
jobs, they were not likely to face age restrictions, either in prac-
tice or in law.

The Committee would stress that the linguistic and
5.1.3
cultural richness brought to bear by migrants from both Euro-
pean and non-European countries is one of the Europe's key
assets. Further steps should be taken to recognise degrees and
other certificates from countries both inside and outside Europe.
The Committee would point out that the highly diverse legal
status of migrants (e.g. asylum seekers, recognised refugees,
migrant workers from within Europe, third-country nationals
etc.) often restricts these people's access to further education
and training, although it also results in certain education and
training measures — such as language courses — becoming
mandatory.

5.1.4
The Committee feels that no clear conclusions are
drawn from the impact of demographic change on opportu-
nities for lifelong learning among the older generation who are
no longer in paid employment. The Committee points to the
many and varied recommendations set out in its own-initiative
opinion on demographic change (13). This opinion clearly states
that that people of any age need to expand their knowledge
level in
base both in their private lives and at a professional
order to help shape this development, to shoulder responsibility
for others and to be able to live an independent life for as long
as possible.
In many professional fields, additional skills are
needed, while in others, completely new service patterns are
training should be
emerging for which initial and further
provided at an early stage.

5.1.5
For this action plan too, the Committee recommends
‘making provision for learners with special needs, and actively
taking into account the specific needs of people with disabilities,

(13) Cf. the EESC own-initiative opinion of 15.9.2004: Towards the seventh
Framework Programme for Research: Research needs in the area of demo-
graphic change — quality of life of elderly persons and technological require-
ments. Rapporteur Ms Heinisch (OJ C 74, 23.3.2005).

in particular by helping to promote their integration into main-
stream education and training’ (14) and by stepping up access to
distance learning (e-learning).

5.1.6
The Committee is critical that too little attention is
paid to the personal learning needs of adults who, although not
economically active, are committed members of their commu-
nities and of society. They often lack sufficient resources to
access adult learning.

The Committee recommends opening up the entire
5.1.7
formal education system more fully to the learning needs of
adults. It would thus repeat its statement that the time is ripe ‘to
move beyond the age-related educational restrictions imposed
on the European public by the European education and training
systems’ (15). Satisfactory skills acquired earlier in life should be
recognised within an open and more flexible formal education
system. Access for all to IT equipment in educational institutions
could help encourage lifelong learning and learning via the
Internet.

5.1.8
Continuing learning at universities has taken a back
seat in higher education policy. Universities must also assume
responsibility for lifelong learning. The Committee notes that
adult education provided by universities and continuing educa-
tion for graduates should be closely linked to the development
of adult education and be incorporated into lifelong learning
arrangements.

5.2
The Committee notes that the overall objective of the
adult learning action plan should be to put into practice the five
key messages of the Commission communication It is never too
late to learn. The Committee is unhappy that no action at all is
proposed for the fourth key message (ensuring sufficient invest-
ment), and feels that a fourth action of this kind must at all
costs be included in the plan.

5.2.1
The Committee would also recommend that industry
and government put in place incentives to attract people into
further learning. Expectations of a ‘return’ on investment by
further education and training institutions (point 2.2 of the
action plan) cannot be the only motivation in moves to secure
greater equality of opportunity in access to lifelong learning.

The Committee feels that no sound estimate has yet
5.2.2
been made of
the costs involved in recognising informally
acquired skills. In a pre-emptive move, the Committee would
warn that this must not under any circumstances be taken as a
reason for abandoning any further expansion of adult learning
provision. As vectors for skills recognition, the European Quali-
fications Framework (EQF) (16) and the national qualifications
frameworks will, in a number of Member States, remain in the
early stages of development during the 2007-2010 period
covered by the action plan.

(14) Cf. the EESC opinion of 10.2.2005 on the Proposal for a Decision of the
European Parliament and of the Council establishing an integrated action
programme in the field of lifelong learning. Rapporteur: Mr Koryfidis (OJ C
221, 8.9.2005).

(15) Ibid.
(16) COM(2006) 479 final, see the EESC opinion of 30.5.2007 on Lifelong
learning. Rapporteur: Mr Rodríguez García-Caro (OJ C175,
27.7.2007).

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5.2.3
The Committee also stresses the long-term social and
economic costs of such large groups of people within society
with such low levels of general and vocational education and
training.

The Committee notes that

indications of welcome
5.2.4
moves for a potential opening of
the ESF and the lifelong
learning programme presuppose considerable shifts in emphasis
at the expense of the priorities that have been in place to date,
and will also require governments to use their own resources in
the adult learning sector. It notes that only a few European
countries and regions can draw on the ESF to any large degree
to fund innovation but not as a rule to finance adult learning.
The ongoing redistribution of ESF funding in the new Member
States will also result in restrictions being imposed in other
regions.

5.3
The Committee is pleased that the European social part-
ners and non-governmental organisations, having been involved
in the consultation process (point 1.1 of the action plan) during
the preparatory stage, also have a role to play in the delivery of
the action plan and are able to bring their specific expertise to
bear. The EESC notes that particular attention should be paid to
securing decent working conditions for service providers and a
decent and enabling learning environment for adult learners,
and to ensuring that such learners can also draw on their user
rights, regardless of whether they pay for these services out of
their own pockets or not.

For

the continuing work on the action plan,

5.4
the
Committee also recommends the involvement of a number of
European Commission directorates-general and the relevant
European bodies. Cooperation of this kind would foster policy
coherence between the objectives and activities of the individual
directorates-general.

5.5
The Committee also welcomes the involvement in the
consultation process of international organisations (point 1.1 of
the action plan). As a next step, it would recommend that the
European Commission, together with the directorates-general
concerned, draw up an additional international adult learning
action plan.

The Committee would ask that, in drawing up rules of
5.6
good governance for adult learning facilities (point 2.2 of the
action plan), sufficient scope be retained for diversity and plur-
ality so that smaller, not-for-profit providers offering significant
cultural added value and operating with innovative working
methods also have the opportunity of securing support.

5.7
The Committee feels that modern, multifunctional local
learning centres are vital to good governance (point 2.2 of the
action plan).

5.7.1
The Committee welcomes the introductory reference to
the ‘partnership’ desirable in cities and regions (point 2), but
regrets the absence of any specific recommendations on the
need for coordination in the systematic expansion of adult
learning in a particular area.
In this regard, the Committee
would draw attention to the exemplary Learning Cities and
Learning Regions movement in Europe (17).

(17) Examples may be found in the paper published by the European
Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture European
Networks to promote the local and regional dimension of lifelong learning
(The R3L Initiative), March 2003.

5.7.2
The Committee also recommends that, as part of the
action plan, greater attention be paid to the construction of
new, local, visionary and attractive learning centres for all adults
across all regions of Europe. Much adult learning still has to be
delivered in shared accommodation that was actually built for a
different purpose and is only available at certain times.

since,

in terms of

5.7.3
The Committee regrets the lack of any express inclu-
sion in the action plan of residential adult education centres
teaching
(German: Heimvolkshochschulen)
methods, these, among others, shine out as beacons of Euro-
pean adult learning. The fact that these centres have boarding
facilities makes them key meeting points for
learners and
teachers on the move from across Europe. Over the last ten
years, subsidies to these centres have been cut considerably, and
a number — including those with a high European profile —
have closed in recent years.

5.8
The Committee feels that the opportunities and difficul-
ties involved in new communications technologies should be
more fully reflected in the implementation of the action plan
and should also be factored into the action plan itself to a
greater extent. Lack of IT access is a further dimension of social
exclusion and is becoming an ever more acute problem. For
instance, 46 % of all households in Europe have no home
Internet access (18) and 40 % of Europeans admit to having no
Internet skills (19). Little progress has yet been forthcoming in
opening up free Internet-based learning opportunities more
fully to all adults, even although, at the same time, patents for
appropriate learning concepts are under discussion and have
already been applied for (20).

The Committee recognises that employers provide a large
5.9
portion of training to adults (point 2.2 of the action plan).
However, trade unions also promote adult learning in their own
facilities and at the workplace, for instance by providing local
and transnational courses via their own organisations and by
putting in place motivational advice and support services for
learning provision at the workplace. It is important to ensure
that the action plan strikes a balance between the learning
opportunities on offer and fair access conditions for all learners.

5.10
The Committee attaches importance to the principle
that, even where it is the state that provides basic and project-
specific support to particular facilities, the freedom of conti-
nuing education and training providers to decide on their own
curricula and on how they shape their programme — and their
right to choose their own staff — must remain sacrosanct,
although compliance with certain quality and efficiency stan-
dards is imperative.

(18) Households with at least one person between the ages of 16 and 74,

EU-27 (Eurostat, as at 8.2.2008).

(19) Persons aged 16 to 74, EU-27 (Eurostat, as at 8.2.2008).
(20) At a basic policy level, key documents include the Council Resolution
on exploiting the opportunities of the information society for social inclusion
(OJ C 292, 18.10.2001, p. 6), but the outcomes of the follow-up activ-
ities were not appraised for the action plan.

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5.11
The Committee endorses the key message that good
governance among adult learning providers should be learner-
focused and welcomes the recommendation to establish ‘close
relations’ with learners' organisations. Within the adult learning
context, however, it feels that this does not go far enough.

5.11.1
The Committee regrets the lack of any clear statement
on the participation of adult learners and on bodies lobbying
on their behalf within the adult learning sector. In most Euro-
pean countries, the democratic rights of young school children
and students have, to date, been covered by considerably more
effective legal safeguards than those of adult learners.

The Committee proposes that any evaluations should
5.11.2
focus on learners' own assessments. In particular, there should
be an exchange of demand-related and learner-based quality
testing models, which should have priority over the introduction
of new state measures to ‘monitor’ provider quality (21).

5.11.3
The Committee would also propose that particular
consideration be given to safeguarding the rights of adult users
(‘consumers’) of paid education and training services. Steps
should be taken to flesh out such rights, for instance in cases
where participants are compelled to discontinue a course or are
dissatisfied with it and withdraw, or in the event of timetabling
changes or the cancellation of lessons. The recommendations
for transport users' rights in Europe could serve as an example
on which to draw.

5.12
The Committee agrees that the Member States and the
Commission should pay more attention to initial and continuing
training and to the status and payment of adult learning staff
(point 3.2 of the action plan).

5.12.1
The Committee recognises that, being learner-focused,
the adult learning sector requires highly flexible staff, but also

Brussels, 13 March 2008.

asks that high staff flexibility should be combined with a high
level of social security. The social partners could adopt support
measures to counter the insecure employment status of teachers
in this sector and to improve their participatory rights.

5.12.2
The Committee recommends that, in moves to bring
a greater degree of professionalism into the sector, the focus
should not only be on the specific skills needed to teach adults
but also on actual expertise in the subject being taught, as it is
on that that learning achievement very much depends.

5.12.3
The Committee would also suggest that studies and
recommendations be prepared on the status of civil society
volunteers working within the adult learning sector.

5.13
The Committee notes the priority objective of having as
many adults as possible attain a ‘one level higher qualification’
(point 3.3 of the action plan). Within the overall context of
adult learning, there is but limited value in classifying people
and their learning objectives on the basis of educational attain-
ment levels, although, in individual courses, particular attention
must obviously be paid to grouping together people with
similar levels of prior knowledge. Moreover, there can be no
guarantee that, having attained a new formal level of education,
people will also secure greater social
recognition or even
thereby find a job. The meeting of a wide range of quite
different learners is,
if anything, what gives flavour to many
adult learning courses, or, expressed in economic terms, what
constitutes the ‘social capital’ inherent in them.

Information should be given as

to the indicators
5.14
planned for the additional
inclusion of non-vocational adult
learning, of area-based delivery and, to a greater extent than in
the past, also of non-age-limited education and training oppor-
tunities for people not in employment.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

(21) In Germany, support is given to the independent education and

training testing foundation Stiftung Bildungstest.