Director of HERC explores implications of new forms work for lifelong learning professionals
Between 16-17 February, 2018 a major international conference on the theme of Lifelong Learning Policies & Adult Education on Professionals: Contextual and Cross-Contextual Comparisons between Europe and Asia, was held in the Julius-Maximilian University, Würzburg, Germany. Researchers and practitioners from around 20 countries from Europe and Asia addressed the role of professionalization in adult education and lifelong learning, and associated identities, in the context of national, international and transnational policies in lifelong learning and over-arching Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Organised by the Professor of Adult Education in Würzburg, Regina Egentemeyer, this event was supported by a number of bodies including the Asia Europe Education Research Hub for Lifelong Learning Hub – an official network for university cooperation in Lifelong Learning Research which brings together more than 100 researchers in its 5 research networks (http://asemlllhub.org) and DAAD Professor in Würzburg, Arne Carlsen (previously Director, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg (http://uil.unesco.org). Additionally, as the conference followed directly from the most recent in a successful series of ERASMUS + COMPALL Winter Schools it also benefited from the lively engagement of Masters and Doctoral students. https://www.hw.uni-wuerzburg.de/compall/startseite/
In her invited keynote address, the Director of HERC, Professor Maria Slowey spoke on Lifelong education centre stage: new forms of professional development for new forms of lifelong learning. She explored the ways in which the role of the professional adult educator is changing in the context of wider developments in the nature of work and associated life course patterns including: ageing populations, gender inequalities, the economic crisis, impact of technology, rise of the service sector, new migration patterns and the growth of the ‘gig economy’. Other keynote speakers included Professor Han SoongHee, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea and Dr Lesley Doyle, Glasgow University.
