The marketization of adult education exists in the policies and the practices of adult education in different countries and is being promoted by some of the international inter–governmental organisations. One of them is the European Union, which enhances the role of adult education in its member states in accordance with its strategic goals. For this purpose, it uses the mechanism of the open method of coordination that allows the member states the autonomy of developing their own national policies of adult education. Because of this, the effects of the policies of the European Union on the field of adult education can quite vary amongst different countries. The national adult education policy can similarly influence individual institutions in various different ways. We have researched these influences and effects in relation to the marketization of adult education according to the three analytical policy models of adult learning and education as defined by Lima in Guimarães (2011): (1) the democratic–emancipatory model, (2) the modernisation and state control model and (3) the human resources management model. We conclude that the human resources management model prevails in analysed policies of the European Union, Slovenia and Germany, although policies of both countries also have quite a few characteristics of the modernisation and state control model, which are dominant in analysed laws. Analysed policies contain different levels of promotion of marketization that manifests in different ways in the analysed Slovenian and German institutions of adult education, while the effects of the policy of the European Union are present to a greater extent in the Slovenian than in the German policies and institution. The most common form of promoting the marketization in the analysed policies is defining a role of a national government that is not providing adult education, but rather coordinating different adult education providers, performing quality control, enhancing the demand and removing the barriers of participation. Common effects of the marketization of adult education that are present both in the German and the Slovene analysed public institution are expansion of programmes of training and adaptation of the immigrants, older workers and low–skilled people to the labour market, an increase in the share of the working population among the participants, increased advertising activities, greater flexibility of the provision of adult education in accordance with the demand, an increase in financing programmes through different projects, and greater cooperation with the private sector.
|