Adult education

Definition

Education specifically targeted at individuals who are regarded as adults by their society to improve their technical or professional qualifications, further develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge with the purpose to complete a level of formal education, or to acquire, refresh or update their knowledge, skills and competencies in a particular field. This also includes what may be referred to as ‘continuing education’, ‘recurrent education’ or ‘second chance education’.

Example of use

Latin America and the Caribbean was one of the first regions to introduce the category of young people into the concept of adult education in the 1980s, due to their growing presence in educational programmes designed for adults. Youth and adult education continues to be the most representative conceptual classification covering what is principally second-chance or compensatory schooling, including literacy. (UIL, 2017: 27)