A Gloomy Landscape for Skills Development: Adult education Systems in the Visegrad Countries in the Eyes of Stakeholders
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Abstract
This article examines stakeholder perspectives on the functioning of adult education systems in the four Visegrad countries: Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Its starting point is a marked discrepancy that emerged in a scoping study conducted within the Erasmus+ project Digital Individual Learning Accounts in the Visegrad Countries. Adult participation in education and training in the region has been rising, and considerable policy effort, supported by European Union funds, has been invested in the field. The stakeholders we interviewed nevertheless assessed their national systems in largely critical terms. The article draws on 45 interviews conducted in 2023 with policy makers and policy experts, employers, adult training providers, and representatives of public employment services and human resources agencies. We examine the perceived strengths and challenges of the national adult education systems, the barriers to adult participation in learning, and the ways in which soft and transversal skills are understood and prioritised. Respondents in all four countries point to weak governance, information asymmetries and funding mechanisms that distort rather than respond to demand, and locate the barriers to participation largely beyond the education system itself: in the time and resources available to learners and in the attitudes of employers and of adults themselves. Positive views were limited and concerned mainly the growing training offer and the availability of European Union funding. Soft skills are regarded as highly relevant but loosely conceptualised, with new demand emerging for skills related to mental health and well-being and to diversity and inclusion. Adult learning in Central and Eastern Europe remains under-researched, and systematic studies of the region have begun to appear only recently. The article addresses this gap and contributes to debates on adult education policy.
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