In August 2019, representatives of local governments, adult education coordinators and programme providers discussed the development of adult education policy and its implementation in the Latgale region, which has the highest unemployment rate in the country. This was the first round of the four planned regional discussions.

Working group discussions were based on Cedefop’s 2019 analytical framework for developing upskilling pathways for adults.

Conclusions by the working groups were both region-specific and general for the whole country. Adult education is a crucial component for both personal development of citizens and economic growth. Programmes should be tailored to the needs of enterprises in the region. The ESF project ‘Competence development of employed persons’ (2017-22) is currently the most prominent mechanism for supporting adult education, offering partial funding for individual learning. Permanent guidance and counselling measures are needed to foster participation in adult education after the project. According to the working groups, equal access to information about adult education opportunities needs to be supported by life skills consultants at municipality level.

The discussions were organised within the Erasmus+ project National coordinators for the implementation of the European agenda for adult learning (2017-19), coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Science. The project aims to support the development of the adult education system at both policy and implementation levels.

More information about adult education in Latvia