Innovations in adult and vocational education as means of meeting the challenges of changing world

Abstract

Dynamic changes in the world of activities require the adult and vocational education systems to adapt to these changes. The innovations in the adult and vocational education are an important factor of the achievement of the strategic and ambitious goals of the European Union policies and strategies related to the lifelong learning and knowledge economy. In this paper it is aimed at presenting the short review of the literature and documents on the innovations of the vocational education and training in the European Union countries. The object: recent innovations in vocational education and training in the European Union and Lithuania. Results reveal that among main innovations standardisation of occupations, modularisation of curriculum, also, support of stake-holders (education-economy), and more active involvement of such stake-holders, as researchers into the decision making process could be identified. The following tasks have been performed: the reasons for the need for innovations in adult and vocational education are discussed, also, the main innovations in vocational education are presented. Methods of critical and comparative analysis of recourses that had been performed by the international team working in the Framework 6 project INCLU-ED (“Strategies for Inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from Education“ Contract No. FP6-028603-2) were employed for the development of this paper.