With this paper we want to contribute to the debate on the usage of vocational training as a tool to promote the integration of disadvantaged groups. We focus in particular on programmes that target refugees and highlight the organisational and coordination challenges that must be addressed in order to develop such programmes. Relying on knowledge…

This report projects Northern Ireland's skills base through to 2030 and compares this to a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The report shows that on current trends Northern Ireland will continue to lag many other countries on a number of measures of learning and skills in 2030. These shortfalls can…

For the past 50 years, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes provided through state adult education systems have been the primary means of meeting English acquisition for immigrants and refugees, and, to a limited extent, their integration needs. Yet these systems meet only a fraction of the total need for all adult education…

This article analyzes educational policy for students with mild mental retardation in terms of four important outcomes: (1) successful employment; (2) development of independence; (3) the acquisition of life skills; and (4) successful involvement within the school and community. Inhibitors of successful outcomes are identified, and federal and…

Some of the leading players in adult learning and a few regular contributors of "Adults Learning" were asked about what they would like to see on the agendas of ministers in the new Government. This article shares and presents the thoughts of these players in adult learning. These include: (1) "Sounds like lifelong learning" by…

Ireland's economic and social problems in the 1980s spawned a new kind of community education. Key characteristics of the new community education are as follows: (1) it is a learning environment and located in the community; (2) it provides learning programs based on identified needs; (3) its control remains in the local community's hands; (4) its…

The term "cooperative and mutual enterprises" (CMEs) was developed in 1999 by a mutuality task force in Oxfordshire, England, as a modern way of reasserting the notion of the adult education movement as a cooperative movement for social (democratic) inclusion. CMEs recall the tradition of learning through clubs, unions, mechanics'…

Strategies for overcoming exclusion through adult learning were identified through case studies of 19 initiatives in the following countries: Belgium; Mexico; the Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; and the United Kingdom. The study programs involved a diverse array of formal, nonformal, and informal public sector, community, and enterprise-based…