Week of lifelong learning

Lifelong learning week (LLW) is a traditional Slovene festival of learning, which has been providing numerous free educational and cultural events for twenty years drawing attention to learning throughout life. This year’s LLW will be held between 15 and 22 May and outside the official date to the end of June 2015.

It is increasingly important that after the end of formal education people continue to educate themselves by attending various courses, workshops, seminars and training at their workplace (i.e. non-formal education) or improving their knowledge independently (i.e. informal education). Lifelong learning is not only important in terms of the economy related to the labour market and productivity, but also in the wider context of cultural and social inclusion in a modern, developing society and for active citizenship.

According to the European lifelong learning indicator, Slovenia is above the EU average

One of the strategic goals in the field of education and training in the European Union (EU) is on average at least 15% of adults aged 25-64 participating in lifelong learning by 2020. The mentioned indicator is calculated from data collected with the Labour Force Survey and shows the share of adults who stated that they participated in formal or non-formal education in the four weeks before the survey.

According to the LFS data for 2014, on average about 12% of adults in Slovenia aged 25-64 participated in formal or non-formal education. Slovenia is thus above the EU-28 average of 10.7% and in the upper third of EU Member States. The highest shares (above 20%) were recorded by Finland (25.1%), Sweden (28.9%) and Denmark (31.7%), and the lowest (below 3%) by Croatia (2.5%), Bulgaria (1.8%) and Romania (1.5%). Slovenia exceeded the EU goal of 15% in 2010, but since then a significant decline in the number of adults participating in lifelong learning was recorded (16.2% in 2010, 13.8% in 2012 and 11.9% in 2014), so such events as LLW are even more desirable and useful.

More than a third of adults participated in formal or non-formal education in the year before the survey

Detailed information regarding participation of adults in lifelong learning is given by the Adult Education Survey (AES), which is conducted every five years; the latest survey in Slovenia was conducted in 2011. According to the AES, in the twelve months before the survey 36.2% of adults in Slovenia aged 25-64 participated in formal or non-formal education, which was close to the EU average of 40.3%. A lot more respondents participated in non-formal education (34.7%) than in formal education (2.3%). Participation in learning activities was higher among women (37.9%) than among men (34.5%); it was also higher among more educated people and lower among older people.

A large majority of non-formal adult education activities are job related

According to the 2011 AES, around 69% of people participated in non-formal learning activities for job related reasons and 31% for personal reasons. Despite the fact that adults in Slovenia and the rest of the EU participate in education mostly due to job related reasons, the share of people participating due to personal reasons was the highest in Slovenia.