Over the past decade, opportunities for online learning have dramatically increased. Learners around the world now have digital access to a wide array of corporate trainings, certifications, comprehensive academic degree programs, and other educational and training options. Some organizations are blending traditional instruction methods with…

Evolving information and communication technology creates new spaces, learning materials, and demands in training institutions. Higher education distance learning (HEDL) responses to these transformations are miscellaneous and its development strategies vary from a country to another. Interpreting before COVID-19 secondary data, this article…

This article offers a global overview of the burgeoning field of micro-credentials and their relationship to lifelong learning, employability and new models of digital education. Although there is no globally accepted definition of micro-credentials, the term indicates smaller units of study, which are usually shorter than traditional forms of…

This article analyses Portugal's adult education policy between 1999 and 2010. Our empirical material consists of Portuguese as well as supranational policy documents. We use a theoretical framework which distinguishes three models of public policy, with different views on the roles of public policy and of education: (1) participative…

This article explores the discourse of international educational reform that aims at meeting the various challenges of globalisation and a knowledge-based economy and preparing students for a better future in the twenty-first century. Specifically, it reviews the dominant themes, trends and goals of modern education. It does so by exploring the…

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), sees as one of its major tasks assisting nations to appreciate the concept of life-long education and to work out its implications in the many different sets of conditions found throughout the world today. The paper constructs conceptual models for the provision of…

In light of the increasing emphasis on "vocationalism"--preparing students for work--in education and the media today, a model is proposed through which the major components of this "new vocationalism" could be operationalized. The model integrates academic and vocational education. It involves a total system change in education that describes the…

Three centuries ago only religious schools and apprenticeship controlled by the guilds existed to provide training. Regular academic schools originated in religions that needed a well-educated clergy, and these schools offered the model for the universal basic and secondary schools that exist today in nearly all countries. The European guilds gave…

These conference proceedings address a broad range of issues related to postgraduate education and training beyond the doctoral degree for maintaining expertise in all areas of psychology. They focus on six general issues: (1) models for education and training beyond the doctoral degree; (2) societal needs, changing demographics, and national…

University of the Third Age (U3A) programs in Australia and New Zealand were examined through data collected from 126 U3A groups in Australia and 20 in New Zealand. The 24,870 responses and 2,002 responses obtained in Australia and New Zealand, respectively, represented 76% and 77% of U3A group members in the two countries. Data were collected…

The following papers are presented in this book: "Self-Directed Learning: Consensus and Conflict" (Long); "Challenges in the Study and Practice of Self-Directed Learning" (Long); "A Conceptual Model of Autodidactism" (Tremblay, Theil); "Functional and Dysfunctional Uses of Self-Directedness in Adult…

Canada-based community learning networks (CLNs) were examined to provide an operational definition of CLNs, design a framework for their review and analysis, and identify best practices in CLNs. Data were collected from three sources: interviews with 16 key stakeholders in CLNs, literature review, and case studies of five Canadian CLNs. The…

The U.S. Commissioner of Education introduced career education (CE) as a formal concept in the 1970s. The first formal CE efforts were concentrated on demonstration projects in grades K-12. In the 1980s and beyond, government and private agencies, business and industry, labor, commerce, education, citizenry, nonprofit associations, and others…

The objectives, curriculum, and role of higher education and key policy and practice issues were reassessed against the backdrop of recent and predicted demographic, economic, and political changes and trends in Great Britain. Special consideration was given to the fact that "mature" learners now constitute the majority of entrants into…

This book, which is intended for practitioners working with adult learners at the postsecondary level, describes a wide range of lifelong learning program models and educational strategies that have proved successful with adult learners across the nation. Data gathered by the Commission for a Nation of Lifelong Learners in a national study of…