The Swedish Adult Education Initiative: From Recurrent Education to Lifelong Learning

Abstract

The recent Adult Education Initiative (AEI) in Sweden has brought adult education to the fore of the public policy debate. Policy makers are once again looking at adult education as an instrument in addressing the major challenges facing today’s society. By all international comparisons the AEI is an impressive undertaking. Between 1997 and 2002 the state will allocate $Can. 3 billion for the project that has, as a target, to reach 15 percent of the labour force. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly present the background to the AEI, the policy strategy and provide some critical reflections on some of the successes and unresolved issues. The AEI has to be viewed in the broader context of adult education in Sweden. As Carnoy (1990, p. x) points out, there are crucial differences in what adult education attempts to do and can do in different social-political structures. Since the 1960s adult education has had a high profile in Sweden and been a central instrument in economic and social policy. Thus, it is not surprising that in a comparative perspective participation in adult education in Sweden is high (OECD, 1997). However, despite its international standing recent challenges to the Swedish Model have questioned the adequacy of the existing system and resulted in a discussion of the need for a major reform of Swedish adult education. The experiences gained from the AEI will form the base for this reform. As a background to the discussion of the AEI the analysis will start with some observations on how the system has emerged since it became a critical policy area in the late 1960s. Of particular interest is how decisions taken regarding the structure and governance of adult education set boundaries for the coming reform.