The project focuses on the contribution of the education system to the implementation of lifelong learning and its role as a potential agent of social integration in Europe. Its aims and objectives are to study the effect of country-specific institutions on access of adults to the education system and to assess the effectiveness of access policies and practices in different EU member, as well as in associated countries and their implications for the creation of European knowledge society.

The project suggests a new evolutionary approach. Country-specific institutional systems are closely interrelated and complementary. These country-specific institutional 'packages' should shape the opportunities for lifelong learning and yield different outcomes of analogous political reforms. Thus, the development of lifelong learning policies and education systems can only be properly analysed by taking into account the mutual interdependence of institutional settings as well as different policies connected with lifelong learning within the country.

The study will be carried out on three levels: macro, meso and micro in order to look at the interaction and relationship between macro-structural factors, national policies, institutional factors and adults as potential learners. It is planned to collect data from three different types of sources: (a) individuals (a survey of adult learners in schools and universities, data from Eurostat driven Lifelong Learning Survey which will take place in 2005); (b) education institutions (interviews with schools' management, officials of education ministries); (c) enterprises (interviews with SME management). The methodological aims of the project are an assessment of indicators used in Eurostat driven EU Lifelong Learning Survey (2005) and an elaboration of indicators to be used for monitoring lifelong learning in formal education settings.

Contact Project Office: LLL2010@tlu.ee

Institute of International and Social Studies

Tallinn University

Uus-Sadama 5, 10120 Tallinn, ESTONIA