The perspectives of adult education development in the context of lifelong learning

The idea of Lifelong learning was legalised for the countries of the European Union at the policy-making level when the Memorandum on Lifelong learning was published in 2000. This concept became the basis for reforming the educational system in many countries. The EU Communication, Adult Learning: It is never too late to learn!, adopted by the Commission in 2006, attests the relevancy of its implementation in adult education. Education theoreticians and politicians alike admit that the projects for implementing the Lifelong learning idea face difficulties. Theoreticians in adult education report that the road for implementing this idea – a change of paradigm from education to learning – raises problems even in those countries where adult education already has deep traditions. Re- search on implementations of Lisbon Strategy (2000), written at the request of politicians in 2004, revealed that the results anticipated by the Lisbon Strategy had not been warranted. Therefore, new directions of activities were foreseen. One of them was to make Lifelong learning a specific realityVytauto Didžiojo universiteta