Supporting Adult Education Policy Through Data Collection and Registries – Experiences of the Visegrad Countries in the context of individual learning accounts and quality assurance developments

Abstract

This article examines the role of adult education registries and data collection in supporting policy development across the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), with a specific focus on Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) and quality assurance. Utilising Richard Desjardins’ typology of adult learning systems, the study employs a mixed-methods approach, including policy document analysis and 42 stakeholder interviews, to evaluate how these nations manage their information infrastructure. The findings reveal that while formal education sectors are comprehensively tracked, the non-formal vocational sector remains fragmented, often suffering from information asymmetry and market failures. Comparative analysis highlights diverse national strategies: Hungary has adopted a centralised, mandatory registration model, whereas the other V4 nations rely on more voluntary or market-driven systems linked to public funding. The authors identify four strategic approaches to registry development – legal obligation, funding-linked registration, voluntary participation, and organic development—
which we read as institutional expressions of the „patchwork capitalism” that characterises the region’s transition and the absence of a settled skills-formation regime for adults. The article concludes by relating each approach to the scope, coordination
and quality-assurance demands of Individual Learning Accounts. The contribution is an empirically led comparative mapping, read through the lenses of information economics and skills-formation theory rather than a purely theory-testing exercise.