Overview
September 2010 |
| What is meant in the country when you talk about
Adult Education? |
Adult education is usually connected with
lifelong learning and is a very broad term;
Under adult education people usually understand:
- ALL areas of adult learning (both general, vocational and all sub-areas),
- formal and nonformal education and learning and informal learning
- all levels of adult education (from basic till further education). |
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What is typical for Adult Education in the
country?
|
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Adult education is strongly marked by economic and
political transition of the country since 2000 and by the extensive reforms in
all areas of society, including education and adult education. It is also
influenced by intensive international cooperation.
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|
Legal basis |
| There is Strategy for Adult Education and
the Action Plan for the implementation of the Adult education strategy.
Some aspects of adult education are regulated by several laws, but the
particular Law on Adult Education is prepared and will be adopted by 2010. |
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Responsible public bodies / ministries
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- Ministry of education has the main responsibility,
especially the unit for adult education within the Department for secondary
education: www.mp.gov.rs/
- The Ministry of labour: www.minrzs.gov.rs
- The National council for vocational and adult education
- Centre for vocational and adult education of the Institute for Improvement of
the Education: http://www.ceo.edu.rs/
- National Agency for Employment: www.nsz.gov.rs
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Relevant
umbrella associations and national (service) organisations
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There are no relevant umbrella associations in the
area of adult education. Similar types of organisations are:
- Workers, People's and Open Universities Business Association
- Adult Education Society
- Society of the Serbian andragogues
There are professional association in certain areas close to the adult education,
such as "Association of human resource managers" and some others.
Services are provided by the responsible national bodies, chambers, agencies,
NGOs etc.
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Providers of Adult Education
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The landscape of adult education providers is vary
various and dynamic, although not stabile. Some of the traditional institutions
"survived", but the new ones are emerging. Main types of providers are:
- Schools for basic adult education (ca 10)
- Some institutions of traditional formal education system (secondary schools,
institutions of higher education, universities)
- Regional training centres (5, the next 3 will be established soon)
- Regional centres for the professional development of teachers (5, further 4
will be established soon)
- National and local employment offices
- People's, workers and open universities
- Cultural centres
- Chamber of commerce
- Professional associations in various vocational areas
- Various agencies for local and regional development
- Numerous NGOs (hundreds of them - adult education is the main mission for some
of them, while the others "use" it to fulfil some other goals)
- Private companies (the bigger ones have their own training departments)
- International organizations, institutions and foundations (mainly through
project activities)
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| Finances |
- There are no reliable statistical data
about the budgetary assets provided for adult education. There is just
information on total revenues and costs of education and adult education/
other types of education, which covers a broad range of activities.
- Important budgetary allocation for adult education is via National
employment service
- There is a significant support from the European and other international
organizations, especially through projects.
- There is no accurate and confirmed data about private and corporate
sector contributions in adult education, but there is a growth of
companies' investments in employees' education and professional
development.
- Non-government organizations and other civil society organizations, as
one of the most important providers, have different sources for financing.
- There is growing awareness of the new needs for learning and education
and readiness to invest, but the low quality of life, existential problems
and financial crises do set limits for more personal contribution. |
| Participation rate |
More accurate data about adult
participation are available for formal education system, but for non
formal education there are only rough estimates, as there is no tracking
or data gathering systems in place.
Rough estimates suggest around 3-4%, although this estimation could be
doubt.
There is an increase of participation trend, first of all in various
educational forms which are "unreachable" for existing
estimation methods.
Women are prevailing among the participants. Among the targeted groups
there are also:
- Functional illiterate people
- Minorities, especially Roma
- People without adequate qualification
- Some professional groups (teachers, judges…)
- Managers, especially HRM
- Older people
Several factors influence the participation:
- low educational level of population
- bad economic situation
- unstable political situation
- provision which doesn't match the scale and type of the educational
needs of the population
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Topics |
Some of the most important topics are:
- Literacy and functional basic education
- Professional education in different areas;
- Citizens, peace and intercultural education
- Personal development strengthening and psycho-social support)
- HR development, leaders and management skills;
- IT literacy and foreign languages
- "Soft" skills (communication and interpersonal skills, team work,
etc.)
- Financial business basics
- Nutrition, medical prevention, HIV and sexually transmitted diseases
- Family life education
- Project management, European foundations, international cooperation
- Maintained development, ecology, tourism, agriculture
- Hobby activities, free time (time off) activities, sports and arts
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| Staff
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Professional (university) preparation for
staff working in adult education has a long tradition in Serbia. There is
3-level study of adult education at the Belgrade University (4 years for
B.A., 1 for M.A. and 3 for PhD). Andragogue as profession is officially
included into the National Vocational Qualification list.
Professional development for adult educators and facilitators is happening
mostly within non-formal education sector.
As for the non-professionals, there are some specialized courses within
formal education sector in different areas, as well as accredited
programmes by Centre for professional development of teachers' relevant
ministries. Non formal education offers mainly content that is targeting
didactic and method competencies. In the last couple of years several
programmes for education and training of trainers have been developed. The
tendency is to continue with precise defining and implementing standards
for training and professional development of staff in this field.
Adult educators/facilitators in Serbia are recruited from different
sectors. Just small percentages are full-time professionals; they are
mainly part-time teachers, trainers, HRM. Therefore it is almost
impossible to give an estimate of their number.
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|
Quality system / insurance |
The Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation
is an independent specialist institution providing standards for professional
development, and National employment Service has developed quality standards for
provider selection. Still, the standards and restrictions for: providers,
programmes and staff are not clearly defined.
There is number of projects with developed tracking systems and evaluation of
particular segments of adult education and learning included, but there is no
systematically monitoring and evaluation in adult education.
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| Latest developments /
main problems in the discussion |
S- Big EU project on functional basic
education of adults in Serbia - "Second chance"
- The problem of accreditation and certification of providers, programmes,
and staff
- Development of NQF and the place of adult education in it
- The adoption of the Law on adult education and measures for its full
implementation
- Weak social partnership
- Lack of financial support |
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Overview written by Katarina
Popovic |
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Relevant links
EAEA Country presentation: Serbia
General
country information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/serbia
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"Make an escalator going the right way". Interview with Alan Tuckett, President International Council for Adult Education
