I
speak here from the perspective of "developing countries" and of Latin
America in particular. From this perspective it is always useful
to see what Europeans are thinking and doing, not necessarily to do the
same but rather to understand better our specific realities and needs.
In the end, given the strong cultural dependence, our governments end up
trying
to follow and imitate Europe and/or North America (the classic "developing"/"developed" notion). Concepts, indicators,
ideals, international co-operation, focus generally on the global North.
The
paper presents The New Skills Agenda for Europe, which sees skills as a
pathway to employability and prosperity. The Agenda revolves around some
problems and data identified as critical:
-
A quarter of the European adult population (70 million)
struggles with reading and writing, and has poor numeracy and digital
skills, putting them at risk of unemployment,
poverty and social exclusion.
- More than 65 million people have not achieved a qualification
corresponding to upper secondary level. This rate varies significantly
across countries, reaching 50% or more in some.
- The adults
mostly in need of engaging in learning
participate very little in lifelong learning. On average, only 10.7% of
adult Europeans participated in any education and training in 2014, with
significant variation between countries and against an EU
target of 15% set to be reached by 2020. An analysis of the
participation of low-qualified adults in education and training shows
even lower participation rates, varying from below 1% in some countries
to over 20% in others. On average in the EU only 4.3% of low-qualified
adults – that is, the group most in need of learning – participate in
education and training.
To improve the employment opportunities and overall life chances of
low-skilled adults, the Commission has made a proposal to help
low-skilled adults – both in-work and out of work – to improve their
literacy, numeracy and digital skills and, where possible, to develop a
wider set of skills leading to an upper secondary education
qualification or equivalent.
The proposal is that Member States should
introduce a Skills Guarantee, which would involve offering to low
qualified adults: (a) a skills assessment, enabling them to identify
their existing skills and their upskilling needs; (b) a package of
education or training tailored to the specific learning needs of each
individual, and (c) opportunities to have their skills validated and
recognised.
The Agenda is structured around three priority
areas: more and better skills;
put the skills developed to good use; and better understand what skills will be demanded
to help people choose what skills to develop.
These main challenges are identified:
- Improving the quality and relevance of skills formation.
-
Strengthening the foundation: basic skills (literacy, numeracy, digital
skills) for everybody ("the proposal for a Skills Guarantee aims to
provide low qualified adults
access to flexible tailored upskilling pathways to improve these skills
or progress towards an upper secondary qualification").
- Making vocational education and training (VET) a first choice. Increasing its attractiveness,
through quality provision and flexible organisation,
allowing progression to higher vocational or academic learning, and
closer links with the world of work.
- Building resilience: key
competences and higher, more complex skills. These include literacy,
numeracy, science and foreign languages, as well
as transversal skills and key competences such as digital competences,
entrepreneurship, critical thinking, problem solving or learning to
learn, and financial literacy.
- Getting connected: focus on digital skills.
- Making skills and qualifications more visible and comparable.
- Improving transparency and comparability of qualifications.
- Early profiling of migrants’ skills and qualifications.
- Improving skills intelligence and information for better career choices.
- Better information for better choices.
- Boosting skills intelligence and cooperation in economic sectors.
- Better understanding the performance of graduates from Universities and VET.
My comments and suggestions
The
diagnosis and the proposal are centred around formal education and
training. This remains, in fact, the main international approach to
adult education and to education in general. The "being knowledgeable"
dimension of UNDP's
Human Development Index (HDI) continues to refer to
education and to formal education only, all ages: expected years of
schooling, adult literacy rate, government expenditure on education,
gross enrolment ratio all levels, mean years of schooling, population
with at least some secondary education, primary school dropout rate,
primary school teachers trained to teach, and pupil-teacher ratio in
primary school. (As we see, two indicators are related to
adult education: adult literacy rate, and population with at least some
secondary education). It is with these indicators that countries'
educational profile is defined.
Without ignoring the
importance of these data and of the formal education system, I would like
to stress the need to: revisit some concepts; insist on the critical
importance of non-formal education and of informal learning not only in
adult life but throughout life; consider other ways of
thinking/organising the question of learning for what; radically rethink the eternal struggle with literacy and
numeracy; and reconsider adulthood and the adult age. Also, the understanding of
'low-skilled adults' must be made explicit and analysed in general and in each particular context.
» Schooling versus education Education exceeds schooling. Many adults are eager to advance their
education, not necessarily to get more schooling (i.e. completing
primary and secondary education). For many young people and adults,
completing secondary education implies a tremendous effort, meeting a
bureaucratic requisite rather than having a pleasant and fruitful
learning experience, and the economic and social reward may not be the
one expected.
» Education/training versus learning Skills are not developed
only through deliberate education and training efforts. Most skills are
developed through a combination of formal and non-formal education and informal
learning (reading, writing, parenting, arts, sports, work, travel, social participation, volunteering, social service, etc.).
» Literacy and numeracy
They continue to be considered basic skills and they continue to be
major problems throughout the world, in both 'developed' and
'developing' countries. In 'developing' countries, it is very common
that people counted as 'new literates' often do not read and write
autonomously and thus do not get to use reading and writing in their
daily life. Also, often there is no evaluation involved, and no
follow-up. We must radically rethink and improve the ways we
conceptualize and do adult literacy, and stop cheating ourselves with
fake statistics.
» Digital skills In most
'developing countries' access to the Internet is still limited (50% or
less of the population). Cell phones are widely used, also by adults and
by the poor. But it is the younger generations that makes the most use
of computers and of the internet. Internet policies focus on children and
youth. Little is being done, and much more should be done, to offer
adults and older adults meaningful access to the digital world.
» Learning for what?
There are many ways to think of, and deal with, this question. Well-being
and prosperity mean different things to different people and cultures
throughout the world. Sumak Kawsay (Buen Vivir, Good Living), the indigenous paradigm proposed as an alternative to the development paradigm, understands Buen Vivir
as reaching a harmonious relationship between self, others, and the
environment. Thus, 'learning for what' becomes learning to take care of
oneself, learning to take care of others
(family, community, peers), and learning to take care of the
environment. These tree domains lead to a holistic, alternative
understanding of the whys, hows, and what fors of education and
learning.
» Adults and the adult age Life
expectancy has grown all over the world. As a result, the adult age has
expanded. However, and despite the lifelong learning rhetoric, adults
continue to be denied the right to education and the right to learn.
Today, in too many countries, education policies and programmes do not go
beyond the age of 30 or 35. It is time to organize adulthood in
different age groups for education, training and learning purposes.
While we oversegment childhood, adolescence and youth, we continue to
refer to adulthood and to adult education as something that covers from 15
year-olds to 95 year-olds. A very effective strategy to ignore
older adults and to amputate the lifelong learning concept.
Related recent texts of mine in this blog (English/Spanish)
-
"Rethinking education" and adult education, Regional consultation with civil society on the document
"Rethinking education: Towards a global common view?", ICAE-UNESCO, Brasilia, 25 April 2016.
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"Replantear la educación" y la educación de adultos, Consulta regional de la sociedad civil "El derecho a la educación de personas jóvenes y adultas desde una perspectiva de aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida", ICAE-UNESCO, Brasilia, 25 abril 2016.
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What is youth and adult education today? (2017)
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¿Qué es educación de jóvenes y adultos, hoy? (2017)
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Formal, non-formal and informal learning (2016)
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Aprendizaje formal, no-formal e informal (2016)
-
Giving up to a literate world?, in:
Adult Education and Development, Issue 80, December 2013.
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¿Renuncia a un mundo alfabetizado?, en:
Educación de Adultos y Desarollo, número 80, Diciembre 2013
-
From
Literacy to Lifelong Learning: Trends, Issues and Challenges of Youth
and Adult Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, Regional
Report prepared for the Sixth International Conference on Adult
Education - CONFINTEA VI, organized by UNESCO. Belém, Brazil, 1-4
December 2009.
Report commissioned by UIL-UNESCO.
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De la alfabetización al aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida: Tendencias, temas y desafíos de la educación de personas jóvenes y adultas en América Latina y el Caribe, Informe Regional preparado para la VI Conferencia Internacional sobre Educación de Adultos - CONFINTEA VI, organizada por la UNESCO. Belém, Brasil, 1-4 diciembre 2009. Informe encargado por el UIL-UNESCO. Una contribución del Centro de Cooperación Regional para la Educación de Adultos en América Latina y el Caribe (CREFAL) a CONFINTEA VI.
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Social Education and Popular Education: A View from the South, Closing conference AIEJI XVII World Congress “The Social Educator in a Globalised World”, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4–7 May, 2009.
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Lteracy and Lifelong Learning: The Linkages, Conference at the
2006 Biennale of
ADEA, Libreville, Gabon, March 27-31, 2006.
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On youth and adult learning (compilation)
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Sobre aprendizaje de jóvenes y adultos (compilación)
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On Lifelong Learning (compilation)
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Sobre Aprendizaje a lo Largo de la Vida (compilación)
