Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, Vol 3, No 1 (2013)

Abstract

EU member states cannot exist without an effective system of adult education being integrated into a lifelong learning strategy by providing the participants with various framing labor market possibilities and facilitating social integration and preparation for an “active aging” in the future. Countries should ensure that their systems offer the opportunity to identify and monitor their priorities. Adult education remains the main topic on the agenda of European institutions since the beginning of the century when through the Lisbon Declaration was agreed that education is a key resource for development. Recent studies confirm the need for investment in training adults. Among public and individual benefits they provide are distinguished as follows: a higher degree of labor market framing, increasing labor productivity and better staff training, cost reduction for unemployment benefits and other social payments payable for an early retirement and incomes increase in terms of a more intense engagement in public life, sustainable health, low crime rate, the higher level of prosperity and fulfillment. The study of adult population groups demonstrates that when being engaged in learning, older people are healthier and respectively require less expenses for medical care.