Abstract

In the light of the recent economic downturn, but also because of the ageing work force in Europe, the increased labor market’s flexibility and dynamics, many governments have recently focused their educational policies on the way adult learners may adapt to the new knowledge-based economy and be competitive. Nevertheless, the way the European Union is shaping the adult learners’ upskilling seems to be giving more emphasis to basic and hard skills to train people to the new jobs of the modern economy rather than soft skills and competences for an active European citizenship.

The aim of this research is to investigate how skill standards are weighted in the EU official statements, to show the difficulties of implementation of the European Adult skills policy recommendations in the Member States by analyzing the nature of the obstacles they encounter, eventually extending such empirical evidence to the whole Open Method of Coordination in the Adult Learning sector.

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