Adult learning policies in Europe. Regional and local stakeholders’ insights

This paper summarises the results of a survey on the regional capacity for adult learning and education. The goal of the survey is to derive a multi-layered view on: • the challenges and opportunities of the adult education sector at the regional and local level, and • the gaps and needs of the adult learning and education staff to use them for the future steps of the project. Opinions of regional and local European policy makers and professionals, here presented, suggest three key findings: (i) Local and territorial networks are the solution to the lack of overarching adult learning systems; (ii) Like employers, civil service organisations represent an essential actor to implement and deliver non formal and informal adult learning opportunities, especially for medium and low skilled adults; (iii) Adult learning reaches millions of adult citizens thanks to the engagement of a wide variety of adult learning professionals being both teaching and non- teaching professionals. Nonetheless, everywhere in Europe, public policies pay little attention to the quality of adult learning workforce. The paper analyses each of the findings based upon the opinions that were expressed by regional and local policy makers and professionals on actual and future adult learning policies.