Financing Adult Education

Abstract

This chapter explains various financing methods for adult education. The term “adult education” refers to a wide range of educational activities in which adults take part and includes vocational education and training, nonvocational courses, correspondence education, and full-time and part-time courses. Because of the very wide range of educational activities included in the term “adult education” there is a wide variety of financing methods and mechanisms adopted in different countries. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) carried out a series of studies on adult education that was published in 1977 and attempted to collect statistics and quantitative evidence about the magnitude and characteristics of adult education in a number of OECD member countries. In most countries finance for adult education is provided from both public and private sources. Central and local governments frequently provide funds either out of general taxation or, in a few cases, out of specific, earmarked taxes.