Informal adult education in Lithuania

This work is meant for informal adult education research as adult informal education in Lithuania is not widely used. The above mentioned factor is based on many factors and tendencies of the previous years, i.e. qualification of the most people does not meet requirements of the market or there is lack of formal qualification, professional training system is not developed as it should be; compared to EU well developed countries only small part of the adults participate in informal adult education programs, lack of informal and self-education acknowledgement makes it harder to take part in labour market. Goal. Evaluate informal adult education status analyzing independent informal adult education situation in Lithuania. At the time of the research scientific literature and documents regulating informal adult education were analyzed as well as secondary statistics data. Possibilities of informal adult education were analyzed, too. Besides, informal and self-education identification, evaluation and acknowledgment process in Lithuania and abroad were evaluated. Vilnius city and municipality informal adult education organizing institutions (5) and adults (165) studying there participated in the research. One of the goals was to analyze studying conditions and motivation of the adults studying there. The results of the research show that the most active adults participating in the educational programs are adults of employable age, having university education and having average earnings people from cities. The demand and possibilities to study accordingly decrease with the age. Most companies are oriented to adult qualification improvement. The main motivation to study is personal adult interests: personal development, seeking for the goals, wish to be useful. Financial problems were the main thing pointed out by the companies and studying adults. Most respondents see possibilities of adult education development mainly in development of adult education management. They suggest creating effective and coordinated educational politics of this field where the goals should be related to actual means and possibilities of their realization.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta