Adult learning and education helps in developing a learning environment for employment and work. Learning workers are more creative, innovative, stress-resilient, and productive – this makes companies more competitive and successful.
Challenges
- Shortage of labour skilled for certain jobs and areas, and elimination of many jobs that require only low qualifications and a low formal skill level.
- The need to upskill and reskill to meet the needs of the twin transitions and other high-demand sectors.
- Digitalisation, green transition, internationalisation, service orientation, flexibilisation of work processes, and innovation need to raise and change the requirements for the competencies of workers.
What adult learning and education can do for the topic of employment and work
The positive link between learning and work is obvious: Learning workers are more creative, innovative, stress-resilient, and productive – this makes companies more competitive and successful. Digitalisation, green transition, internationalisation, service orientation, flexibilisation: all these megatrends on the labour market have one thing in common: they raise and change the requirements for competencies of workers. This is not a new development. What is new is that the demands are changing and increasing faster than ever.
Professional competencies need to be updated regularly and meta-competencies such as social and communications competencies become essential. The recognition and validation of skills and competences that people have acquired through in- and non-formal ALE form an important basis for reskilling and upskilling.
Almost every study on labour market developments and the future of work comes to the same conclusion: to master the ongoing transformation, continuous training and workplace learning are simply indispensable – not only for workers with lower formal education but for all workers. Equally, for those out of work, ALE increases resilience and reduces the effects of loss of confidence associated with unemployment or inactivity in the labour market. ALE promotes new skills and competences to be able to develop professionally and move into higher-quality jobs. ALE facilitates and creates a bridge between unemployment/inactivity and work, education and work, and education and further learning (e.g. from ALE to higher education) and it helps people to make smooth transitions on their learning pathways.
Rebecca enrolled in the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship while working as a prison officer at HMP Dovegate. For her apprenticeship project, she successfully pitched to invite a local assistance dog training charity, the Restart Dog Project, into the prison—a scheme that proved to have a significant benefit on prisoners’ well-being.
“I hadn’t known what career I wanted when studying for my A-levels and decided that university wasn’t the right path for me. I came to regret this later on. When the Serco Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) was introduced at HMP Dovegate in 2017, I jumped at the chance to gain the degree I thought I had missed out on. I had just returned from maternity leave after having twins and wanted to set them the example that it is never too late to learn. I was determined to reduce incidents of self-harm and suicide in our prison. I researched the positive effects of animals in rehabilitation and, for my apprenticeship project, put together a business case for bringing in an assistance dog training programme. My idea turned out to be incredibly successful: at the start of the programme, prisoners rated their mental health as a 4 out of 10. Their latest ratings show that this is now 8 out of 10.”
“Greece has a lot to offer concerning adult education. Apart from the universities, there are also institutions and academies where adults can participate in professional training programs for upskilling and reskilling. Compared to previous years, education has become more organised, it is open to everybody, and the tutors are well-educated. But still, with much more effort, things will get better. From my experience at Odyssea Academy, I had the opportunity to take part in the Social Media Marketing program. Although it was a new section of education for me, there was such an interaction between the participants and the tutors that all the courses of the program were pleasant and easy to learn. The tutors were also very well organised, and they had great knowledge of the market as a business. I would be glad to participate in the next program. The CMDA qualification was also pivotal in my promotion to senior project manager at HMP Dovegate. A picture of myself at my graduation ceremony with my children by my side now hangs on my office wall and brings a smile to my face every time I look at it.”