This is Ireland’s first White Paper on Adult Education. It is testimony to a
recognition by the Government of the fact that:-
• the Adult Education sector has a major contribution to make to meeting
the skill requirements of a rapidly changing workforce, and to the
dominant national concerns of social cohesion and equity in the
emergence of a broadly inclusive and pro-active civil society;
• the sector has shown itself to be highly creative, effective, challenging and
relevant;
• concerns to promote a framework for lifelong learning, and critically to
cater for the needs of adults within it, are increasingly moving centre stage
in countries throughout the developed world.
This Chapter will:-
• specify the aims of the White Paper;
• propose a definition of Adult Education;
• explore the significance of the role of Adult Education in contributing to
the overall vision of modern Irish society;
• elaborate on the key principles upon which the White Paper is based;
• provide an overview of the educational attainment of the Irish adult
population.
1.2 AIMS
This White Paper aims to provide a template for the development of the Adult
Education sector as part of an overall Government commitment to establishing a
comprehensive system of lifelong learning for all. Specifically, the Paper will:-
• reflect on the role of Adult Education in the context of an overall vision for
the development of this society;
• build on the consultation process surrounding the Green Paper on Adult
Education: Adult Education in an Era of Lifelong Learning 1998 (hereafter
referred to as the Green Paper), focusing in particular on the needs of the
learners;
CHAPTER 1
Adult Education
White Paper on Adult Education – Learning for Life 27
• set out the Government priorities and the framework for the future
development of the sector, based on the feedback from the consultation
process;
• identify the priority areas for public investment in Adult Education, in the
light of a rapidly changing societal and cultural context and in the context
of an overall commitment to lifelong learning;
• identify priority groups and programme areas and set targets for
implementation;
• elaborate upon the roles of various providers in the field and the supports
they require;
• provide for a learner-centred framework incorporating infrastructural
elements such as guidance and counselling, quality assurance and the
training of trainers, and ensuring a coherent range of pathways for adults
between education and training and other relevant supports;
• propose a comprehensive structural framework at national and local level
for the support and development of Adult Education;
• set adult education in the context of an overall continuum of quality
education services from early childhood through to and throughout,
adulthood, as an integral element of a framework for lifelong learning.
While this Paper bridges the traditional divide between education and training, it
does not aim to provide a policy blueprint for the training aspects of the field, given
that this task is being advanced through the National Employment Action Plans
(1998, 1999, 2000), and previous publications, and through the work of the Task
Force on Lifelong Learning. The Paper seeks, however, to ensure that there is a fit
and complementarity between education and training provision so as to enable the
learner to move progressively and incrementally within an overarching, coordinated and learner-centred framework.
1.3 DEFINITION
For the purposes of this Paper, Adult Education is defined as "systematic learning
undertaken by adults who return to learning having concluded initial education or
training". The concept is intended to encapsulate:-
• re-entry by adults to Further Education: i.e. education and training which
occurs between second and third-level. This includes programmes such
as Post Leaving Certificate courses, second-chance education such as the
28 White Paper on Adult Education – Learning for Life
Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme for the unemployed, Adult
Literacy and Basic Education, and self-funded adult education
programmes;
re-entry by adults to Higher Education;
Continuing Education and Training: i.e. professional or vocational
development of people in the workforce or re-entering the workforce;
regardless of the level;
Community Education: i.e. the process whereby marginalised groups
formulate a process of user-driven, learner-centred and communal
education;
other systematic and deliberate learning undertaken by adults in a wide
variety of settings and contexts, both formal and informal.
The underpinning theme in this definition is centred on the adult learner's
re-engagement having exited from the system at an earlier stage in life.