Education policymaking has gone global. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to galvanize efforts to promote sustainable development, decrease global inequalities, and realize universal quality education. Supporting these efforts, two leading international organizations, UNESCO and the OECD, have set out normative frameworks for their…

In Canada and elsewhere, the shift from more horizontal models of governance and toward a more organized, diverse, and empowered civil society has sparked renewed interest in citizen involvement. The various dimensions of citizen involvement in policy processes are as follows: (1) mobilizing interest; (2) claims making; (3) knowledge acquisition;…

Although Ontario's Ministry of Education currently funds a variety of literacy programs, the province of Ontario (Canada) currently has no overall policy, evaluation process, or agreed-upon definition of adult literacy to guide further development in the field. When developing a comprehensive government policy regarding adult literacy in Ontario,…

Well-organized career information, guidance, and counseling services are important both to education systems, the labor market, and their interface. Career education is important within compulsory education because it lays the foundations for lifelong career development. In postcompulsory education, well-organized career information, guidance, and…

The model currently used to represent the impacts of Australia's technical and further education (TAFE) programs implies a one-way flow of impact from TAFE to student to community. It may be argued that TAFE could better serve its clients by developing a social capital-based, two-way, reciprocal dynamic of vocational education and training (VET)…

Canadian population trends were examined from a life course perspective to identify needed social policy changes. First, the following principles underpinning the life course perspective were discussed: (1) aging involves biological, psychological, and social processes; (2) human development and aging are lifelong processes; (3) individuals' and…

The relationship between lifelong learning, active citizenship, and neighborhood renewal was explored in the context of the British government's declared intention to address the consequences of poverty through neighborhood renewal, encourage public participation in renewal, and make lifelong learning a central strategy for ensuring future…

Educational strategies for social inclusion are based on particular definitions that do not always take account of the complexities of exclusion and inclusion. By attempting to "normalize" the unemployed and disaffected, social inclusion efforts often legitimate the status quo of systems that might otherwise be regarded as contributing…

A proposal has been made that calls for the development and use of training indicators to improve planning for vocational education and training (VET) in Australia. The idea behind the proposal is to develop indicators to inform policymakers and providers in Australia about changes in the nature of training demand flowing from demographic changes…

The prospects for managing the tension between accountability and improvement in further and higher education (FHE) were examined through a literature review and a 5-year ethnographic study of a change management project at a higher education college in Wales. Special attention was paid to the following challenges facing FHE: globalization; the…

The Comptroller General of the United States testified before Congress regarding the General Accounting Office's (GAO's) framework for building the information technology (IT) work force to achieve results. The following were among the key points of his testimony: (1) the federal government is facing pervasive human capital challenges that are…

An anthropological examination of the impact of globalization on education in the Arab world reveals that education is standing on uneasy middle ground between the Westernization of educational structures and philosophies and the preservation of national and local customs and traditions. The transformation of education from a means to acquire a…

This document argues the importance of schools' actual and potential role for adult learners in England and recommends ways of overcoming the barriers to participation created by current priorities, policies, and practices. Chapter 1 discusses the following themes: (1) the role of learning in a program for communities in crisis; (2) how priorities…

In 1999, the Committee on Lifelong Learning of the Ministry of Learning in Alberta, Canada, conducted a series of consultations on lifelong learning to identify ways of helping adults return to learning to improve their employment potential and realize their career goals. The committee received input from more than 450 Albertans in 14 rural and…

A 6-month consultation process was conducted to identify changes needed in Ireland's system of adult education in the era of lifelong learning. The following issues were addressed: (1) financial barriers for adults wishing to return to education; (2) the lack of access to mainstream programs of education and training; (3) the lack of information…