ABSTRACT
Summary: General agreement about the inevitability of continuing education as the new educational form has not yet led to clarity about what this will imply in reality. Impetus has been given to the task of working it out through the mandate given to the Advisory Council for Adult and Continuing Education (ACACE) by the government to promote the development of the concept of education as ‘a process continuing throughout life’. Discussions have also been stimulated by the five possible models for Higher Education in the 1990s proposed by the Department of Education and Science.
ACACE argues that these proposals do not go far enough and that it is necessary to move to an ‘open-ended’ model based upon the continuing or recurrent provision of full-time and part-time further and higher education for all who by virtue of ability, experience and motivation are able to benefit by it regardless of age.
To achieve this, it is argued, it is necessary to adopt a student-centred approach and begin by determining the educational needs and wants, both overt and covert, of all adults, not just those who have hitherto been participants in adult education. The key shift of emphasis is to the provision of ‘education for adults’.
Four main barriers to the access of adults to educational provision are discussed: geography, finance, educational qualifications and structural barriers, and some requirements of an effective system of continuing education are outlined.
In conclusion, one possible strategy, that of giving all adults educational entitlements (or credits) as a right is suggested.
