From ‘Innovation’ to ‘Quality’: The Topic of Professionalisation for Adult Learning Staff in Selected European Policy Documents

Abstract

The European discourse on lifelong learning started to be a discussion in all member states (MS) actually with the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (MLL), which was launched in 2000 and distributed to be the basis of MLL – discussions in the respective national contexts. In this article the following question is answered: which aspects of ‘professionalisation’ can be found in the European documents ever since then? To answer this, it will be analysed the Memorandum from 2000; its revised version after the feedback of the MS, published as Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality (2001); the Communication It Is Never Too Late to Learn from 2006; the Action Plan on Adult Learning – It Is Always a Good Time to Learn (2007) – and the Renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning, from 2011. This chapter will show that the awareness on the role of ‘learning facilitators’ that was raised in this decade and the views on their performance are changing: the competence of the ‘facilitators’ is stressed more; their integration in a certain ‘system’ of adult education and their importance for the quality of learning are also pointed out. All in all, it can be seen that on the one hand the learner keeps staying in the centre of the educational system; meanwhile, more than 10 years ago, the context of their learning is considered to be more important. However, it cannot be analysed in this paper whether the action in the field follows this talk. Presumably there is a certain trend in that direction, since within the soft and open method of coordination the votes of the MS (which are reflecting the national reality) play a big role in the European policymaking.