Although there is a widely held view that adult learning has a positive impact on well-being, only recently has this proposition been systematically tested. A review of recent research confirms that adult learning has a clear influence on earnings and employability, both of which may influence well-being indirectly. These are more important for…

Data from Scottish adults (41 new participants in further education, 15 continuing participants, 33 nonparticipants) illustrate the complex process of reengaging in learning. The data demonstrate the influence of social milieu (Bourdieu's notion of habitus)--the personal, institutional, and structural factors that support or limit an individual's…

Compares developments in lifelong learning in the 1990s, especially its emergence on government policy agendas, with its origins in the 1960s-1970s. Shows that the lifelong learning rhetoric about educational opportunities has become a justification for reducing public resources, creating new inequities. (Contains 43 references.) (SK)

Explores forms of social capital and the relationship between human and social capital. Depicts the relationship between high and low social capital and initial educational attainment, participation in continuing education and training, and participation in nonformal education. (SK)

A research review identified major adult/continuing education trends in Britain: vocational education/training, university-business-industry interaction, educational needs of the disadvantaged, nonformal settings, life-cycle analysis, access to education, articulation, social purpose and radical adult education, and analysis of adult education in…