Join UIL’s capacity-building opportunities for lifelong learning policy-making

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), in collaboration with Shanghai Open University (SOU), calls for applications by UNESCO Member States for its capacity-building courses on lifelong learning policy-making. Country teams – involving policy-makers and leading researchers – are asked to signal their interest no later than 31 July 2022 for the next course, starting in November 2022, and further courses in 2023.  

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action plan for ‘people, planet and prosperity’. The Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have reinvigorated the concept of lifelong learning, in particular with one stand-alone goal – SDG 4 – which calls on countries to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’. As once again confirmed with the adoption of the Marrakech Framework for Action at the recent Seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII), UNESCO Member States regard ‘lifelong learning for all’ as essential to their education goals and development frameworks. 

To support countries in conceptualizing lifelong learning, developing comprehensive policy frameworks for promoting lifelong learning and implementing lifelong learning programmes, UIL, in collaboration with SOU, regularly organizes workshops on strengthening education systems from a lifelong learning perspective. In these workshop, national teams work collaboratively on the development of a country-based policy or strategy using the tools elaborated in the UIL publication, Making Lifelong Learning a Reality: A Handbook, to support the process of establishing lifelong learning-oriented education systems. Teams are aided in this process with input from key experts and UIL staff, who are also there to guide the development of draft policies and strategies. 

The aim of these capacity-building workshops is to work with representatives of UNESCO Member States to strengthen the design and implementation of lifelong learning policies. To achieve this aim, there are several specific objectives. 

• Identify national priorities for lifelong learning by analysing development contexts and emerging issues in the participating countries, including institutional, legal, social, economic, demographic, technological, cultural and environmental factors;
• In alignment with national priorities and the SDGs, promote a contextualized understanding of lifelong learning; 
• Review relevant sectoral policies in the participating countries from a lifelong learning perspective; 
• Identify and evaluate approaches to the implementation of lifelong learning according to national contexts; 
• Develop or strengthen lifelong learning implementation strategies; Foster an exchange of experiences and peer learning.  

If you are a national representative involved in the promotion of lifelong learning and would like to register interest in this series of capacity-building opportunities, you are invited to provide some details via the following link: https://survey.uil.unesco.org/index.php/154366?lang=en.