Abstract
This article reflects on European education policy which is driven by benchmarks and indicators. While the European benchmark on adult lifelong learning participation-15% to be achieved by 2020-is measured by the Labour Force Survey, the Eurostat Adult Education Survey (AES) was designed to better understand the topic of adult lifelong learning participation in-depth. This article explores the AES as an instrument to inform policy-makers and whether it provides adequate information to empirically testify participation hypotheses. The article argues that analysis of the AES provides limited understanding of the educational supply side. Furthermore, policy-makers should be aware of methodological and conceptual weaknesses before relying on these data in their policy development.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 275-289 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | International Journal of Lifelong Education |
Volume | 33 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 21 Mar 2014 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 4 May 2014 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- benchmarks
- indicators
- monitoring
- participation
- survey