Participation in adult learning and education requires the availability of, and accessibility to, learning opportunities provided by educational institutions. One fundamental element is time. Adult learning and education participation can only be realized by successfully matching individual time-availabilities with the temporal organization of…

Literature on returns to education and labour market outcomes has been increasingly focusing on skill missmatch with regard to migrants' integration and adaptation processes. Researchers have studied the efficacy of official validation of prior skills as well as participation in training and vocational programmes as valid resources to expand…

"Practice engagement theory" (PET) posits that individuals' literacy proficiencies develop as a by-product of their engagement in everyday reading and writing practices and, reciprocally, that literacy proficiencies affect levels of engagement in reading and writing practices. This suggests that literacy training which increases…

This article sheds light on an understudied aspect of the transition from school to work: the choice of a training company. It presents findings from qualitative interviews with 69 secondary school students and apprentices from the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg, focusing on their reasons to choose a training company in the dual system.…

This paper explores patterns in participation in adult education and training (AET) by comparing five countries with high participation rates (the Nordic countries and the Netherlands) with three countries with significantly lower participation rates (France, Poland and the Slovak Republic). Using PIAAC data the paper examines differences in the…

Within the discourse about the professionalisation of adult and continuing education, an extensive discussion about how adult and continuing education can become a profession has taken place. Based on 'classic professionalisation theories', which are guided by the concept of 'traditional professionals', this discussion was about the fulfilment of…

The humanist and critical principles of educational gerontology attribute different goals to education in later life. Self-Actualization is the goal of humanist educational gerontology, while empowerment, emancipation, and social change are the goals of critical educational gerontology. Liberal arts education is dominant in later-life learning.…

"Delayed participation" in higher education (HE) is an increasingly important feature of modern HE systems in many countries. Despite this, surprisingly little empirical research has been undertaken seeking to better understand levels of delayed adult participation in HE across Europe. The present article responds to this gap by…

In Germany about half of the adult learners who start second chance education drop out before graduation. In this paper we aim to contribute to an explanation for this low success rate. We focus on the normative expectations of learners: What are their expectations concerning teachers' attention to their personal abilities, teacher support and the…

Historically, older and lower-skilled adults in the U.S. have participated in Adult Education and Training (AET) at lower rates than other groups, possibly because of perceived lack of return on investment due to the time required to recover training costs. Global, knowledge based economies have increased the importance of lifelong learning for…

Misconceptions and biases in energy perception could influence people's support for developments integral to the success of restructuring a nation's energy system. Science education, in equipping young adults with the cognitive skills and knowledge necessary to navigate in the confusing energy environment, could play a key role in paving the way…

Distance education in higher education is a fast-growing and widespread phenomenon. As many adults are unable to participate in on-campus education, distance education offers flexible learning paths that greatly enhance accessibility to higher education. Exploring distance education's potential to increase the participation of adult learners in…

One crucial issue in mathematics development is how children come to spontaneously apply arithmetical principles (e.g. commutativity). According to expertise research, well-integrated conceptual and procedural knowledge is required. Here, we report a method composed of two independent tasks that assessed in an unobtrusive manner the spontaneous…

Industrialized nations have invested a great deal of public and private resources to facilitate access to information technologies (ITs) and to adjust their cultures and societies to them. These efforts are commonly associated with the idea of expanding computer literacy from higher education institutions to business organizations. Computers have…

This report is the third in a series published by the IDEAL (Impact of Distance Education on Adult Learning) project. The IDEAL project ran from October 2013 to September 2015 with financial support from the EU Lifelong Learning Programme. The project aims to: (1) offer insights on the needs of adult learners to both policymakers and distance…