ANOTATION The present work explores the role and significance of education in lives of the seniors. The thesis consists of two parts. The first part contains an overview of the topic's treatment in domestic literature, definition of basic terms and a description of selected aspects of the elderly's life, and an outline of lifelong learning system in the Czech republic. The second part is based on an empirical research and attempts to shed light at, as the title suggests, the role which education plays in lives of the czech elderly and significance it bears for them. Data for the analysis will be acquired through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods (a telephone survey and in-depth interview). The work closes with relevant annexes and a list of resources used. KEY WORDS senior, senium, education, lifelong education, gerontopedagogy, motivation, meaning of life

Thesis describes development and current state of European Union's Education policy. It focuses mainly on Erasmus programme and its implementation in the Czech Republic on example for five universities in Prague. First part describes history of Education policy from EU's establishment to formation of strategy Europe 2020 and it pays attention to authorities and institutions that influence education in the EU. Second chapter introduces Lifelong Learning Programme and other community programmes supporting education. Moreover it deals with operational programmes in the Czech Republic. Third, last one, part focuses on Erasmus programme, its practical use in the Czech Republic, and specifically on five selected universities in the capital city.

The main actor of lifelong learning (LLL) is a learner. It is important to assess and support their entire learning -- i.e. to value learning -- not only that occurring within formal education system but non-formal and informal learning as well. However, non-formal and informal learning outcomes have been not certified by certificates recognized by society as a whole yet. Moreover, informal learning occurs without curricula and teaching. These are the reasons why it is technically necessary to develop suitable instruments and schemes for recognizing learning outcomes which enable implementation of the LLL system. With regard to implementation of the LLL system in the Czech Republic, there are realized various projects and initiatives, national and sector equivalents of European instruments are created or European instruments for implementation of the European LLL concept are introduced (the National occupations system, the National qualifications framework, a system of recognition non-formal and informal learning outcomes, the Law no. 179/2006, Coll. on recognition of further education outcomes, the European Credit transfer system for Vocational Education and Training). The paper is concerned with opportunities and obstacles in the way of implementation of all the instruments mentioned above into LLL concept of the Czech Republic.

Student Number : 9710307F - MEd research report - School of Education - Faculty of Humanities / This study evaluated the impact on learners of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) programmes at Duvha Power Station. The methods of collecting data comprised face-toface interviews, on-site participant observation, classroom observation and document analysis. The underlying assumption was that ABET programmes did not have a positive impact on either the company and individual candidates, and that they were only provided to comply with the legislation and not to develop and empower people. What emerged from findings was that ABET programmes had a major impact on the company and on the individual candidates, in their homes and communities. The findings, however, also revealed weaknesses and challenges in ABET level 1 that need to be addressed i.e ABET level 1 respondents showed no further interest in participating in the programme citing advanced age, learning being for youth, difficult sums etc, as some of the reasons.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model which integrates the well-established US-based occupational information network (O*Net) into a competence perspective. Taking serious claims about lifelong learning, one of the biggest challenges is the assessment of tacit knowledge and competences. To tackle this challenge, we depart from four well-established competences (personal competence, social competence, methodic competence and domain competence), and integrate descriptors from the O*Net. We argue that learning outcomes (what a person should be able to do) can be made comparable and accessible when linking them with the descriptors from the O*Net. This approach is in line with the European Qualification Framework (EQF), that aims at establishing comparability of learning outcomes within the European Union and relies on theories linking individual to organizational learning.

Introdução: O reconhecimento das dificuldades vivenciadas em serviço é de fundamental importância, sobremaneira, procurando buscar saídas para resolução dessas, entre outros problemas. Por vezes, as práticas educativas fazem parte da formação do enfermeiro psiquiátrico e devem ser realizadas em serviço, concomitantemente com as ações de enfermagem rotineiras. Elas contribuem para o aprimoramento de novos conhecimentos e para o desenvolvimento de habilidades e competências essenciais, tendo em vista a execução de uma assistência de enfermagem, com qualidade ao cliente, à família e à comunidade. Sendo assim, faz-se importante que o enfermeiro tenha construído conhecimentos teórico-práticos durante o curso de graduação em enfermagem, a fim de executar as práticas educativas em serviço, com segurança e preparo para trabalhar tais ações, em Unidades Psiquiátricas. A atuação crítico-reflexiva utilizada pelo docente de enfermagem, tem, como pressuposto, construir um modelo curricular que contemple o processo de formação articulado com o mundo do trabalho, usando estratégias inovadoras, trabalhando o ensino de forma contextualizada, visando à formação de um profissional mais crítico e compromissado com as questões profissionais e sociais. Assim, de acordo com os referenciais teóricos levantados, pudemos perceber que as práticas educativas contextualizadas e dialogadas, ainda não fazem parte do planejamento das ações de enfermagem como um todo. Sob essa perspectiva, é preciso haver a conscientização dos profissionais em relação à importância dessas práticas desenvolvidas em serviço, a serem mais democráticas e humanizadas, com o intuito de garantir a melhoria da força do trabalho em saúde, revelando, assim, a importância do nosso estudo. Como objetivo, propomos levantar com os enfermeiros que atuam na enfermagem psiquiátrica o conhecimento deles sobre educação permanente, verificando se eles participam dessas atividades em serviço, identificando suas dificuldades vivenciadas, buscando seu entendimento sobre a importância da prática educativa em serviço, bem como da educação permanente, como estratégia de organização da aprendizagem e atualização profissional; e desenvolver um programa educativo visando orientação sobre as dificuldades diagnosticadas nestas práticas. Metodologia: Trabalhando a pesquisa qualitativa, humanista, mediatizada pela metodologia da pesquisa-ação. Essa permite levantar problemas e, posteriormente, propor elementos educativos. Aplicamos duas técnicas para a coleta de dados: a entrevista, com a aplicação de questionário, e a observação participante com o uso do diário de campo. A amostra do nosso estudo se constituiu de 7 enfermeiros, da Clínica de Psiquiatria de um Hospital Escola, de uma cidade do interior paulista. Adotamos como critérios de inclusão: profissionais enfermeiros do local, que manifestaram concordância em participar do estudo com a assinatura do termo de consentimento livre e esclarecido, aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa, atendendo aos preceitos éticos e ao rigor científico. Análise dos dados: esses foram levantados, através das falas emitidas pelos sujeitos pesquisados. Foram trabalhados qualitativamente e, portanto, por categorização, permitindo o agrupamento de todos os elementos convergentes e/ou divergentes, apropriados e/ou ajustados às reflexões, de acordo com a discussão, associados aos achados deste estudo. Resultados: Depreendemos que a maioria dos enfermeiros pesquisados atribui significativa importância à educação permanente em serviço, relacionando a busca de conhecimento, inovação, transformação, resolução de problemas, favorecendo a qualidade da assistência/ do ensino/ da pesquisa, assim como a valorização pessoal, profissional e institucional. Alguns sujeito afirmam executar a educação permanente em serviço, mas outros relatam não ter tempo e nem recurso para realizá-la. Os sujeitos da pesquisa têm noção real das questões abordadas, revelando estar antenados sobre a educação permanente. Também realizamos a ação educativa com os enfermeiros através de folhetos informativos avaliados de modo positivo pelos mesmos. Portanto, concluímos que a educação permanente já caminha com seus primeiros passos avaliados, na clínica psiquiátrica em foco, o que contribui para o planejamento e para a organização do trabalho dos enfermeiros, possibilitando uma assistência mais humanizada ao cliente e à família. / Introduction: The acceptance of difficulties experienced in services is highly important, looking for solutions for such issues and others. At some point, the educative practices are part of the psychiatric nursing education and must be executed in service concomitantly with routine nursing actions. They contribute to improvements of learning and developing abilities and considerable capacities in order to provide with assistance in nursing at good qualities for customers, families and communities. Therefore, it is important that the nurse has built theory-practical knowledge during the graduation course in order to execute educative practices in services with security and be well-prepared to work in such actions in Psychiatric Units. The critical-reflexive acting used by a nursing teacher has the purpose of building a résumé model containing the educational process connected with the job outside by using new strategies in where the teaching will be done in a contextualised way, aiming preparing a more critical professional and more compromised about the professional and social matters. Thus, in accordance with the theoretic references studied it was observed that the contextualised and dialogued educative practices are not part of the nursing action plans in general. From this perspective is needed to have a professional consciousness about the importance of these developed practices in services in order to be more democratic and humanized with the purpose of assuring the working force improvement in healthy, revealing then the importance of this study. With the purpose of raising the acknowledge of lifelong learning in psychiatric nurses by verifying whether they take part of such activities, identifying their experienced difficulties, seeking their understanding process about the importance of educative practice in service as well as lifelong learning as a organisational strategy of learning and professional upgrades and developing a educative program aiming the orientation about the detected difficulties in this practices. Methodology: Working the qualitative and humanized research, interfering with research-action methodology. This study proposes raising issues and consequently offers educative components. Two techniques were applied to collect data: the interview applying a questionnaire and the attendant observation using their daily service. The sample of our study was based in seven nurses from the Psychiatric Clinical from a School Hospital of a city located in the interior of the country. As part of the criteria were adopted: local nurses, who manifested their agreement in taking part of this study afterwards their free and cleared consent term approved by the Research Ethical Committee and considered the ethical norms and scientific strictness. Data analysis: they were raised through verbal comments from researched people. They were qualitatively analysed and therefore, by categorization allowing the converging and divergent grouping appropriated/or adjusted to the reflexion according to the arguments associated to the issues found. Results: It was deduced that most of the researched nurses attribute considerable importance to the lifelong learning in services seeking for acknowledges, innovation, changes, problems solutions in order to collaborate to the assistance quality of teaching/research as well as personal, professional and institutional improvements. Some of them confirm that they execute a lifelong learning in service, however others relate about not having time neither resources to execute them. They have a real idea of the approached questions revealing to be updated to the lifelong learning. It was also done the educative action with nurses through bulletin news, which were evaluated in a positive way. Therefore, it was concluded that the lifelong learning is taking the first step forward to the Psychiatric Clinical, which contributes to the planning and organization of the nurses, directing to a more humanized assistance to the patient and family.

The thesis is about the very current issue of lifelong learning in the Czech and Slovak Republics. This thesis evaluates the educational systems and the progress in the area of lifelong learning implementation in both countries. The author dedicates the introductory chapters to theoretical bases of the thesis such as issues of investments in human capital and education, motivation for learning, and establishing definitions on lifelong learning in the CZ and SK. There are further introduced Strategies on lifelong learning in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, as the first complete schemes to modify the whole educational systems. An important chapter is the fourth chapter, which evaluates the Strategies of CZ and SK, and reports on a successful application of preset goals in this area, including their ability to draw financial support from the European funds. The closest attention is dedicated to graduates from universities and their applicability in the job market in relation to their ability to speak foreign languages; and the overall cost of the tertiary education in relation to the growing number of people with university degrees.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the state of adult literacy in Tennessee. The field of adult education underwent a transition as the testing procedure and the test changed to correlate with the induction of the Common Core standards in public schools. Adult students face many barriers to overcome to be successful. The research questions posed guided the analysis of demographic data on student who completed the GED prior to the changes. Data were provided from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development database. The demographics and scores included those of adults who had passed the GED test from 2008 through 2013. A series of 2-way chi square analysis were used to examine pass rates using the characteristics of race and ethnicity, gender, and age. A sample of 2,000 was randomly selected from a population of 60,000. The data showed that in the state of Tennessee there are significantly more males than females who pass the test each year. Although all ethnicities are permissible to take the GED, more Caucasians and African Americans take and pass the test in this state. Takers of the GED in the state of Tennessee are to identify their age while completing the exam. The majority of adults taking the GED from 2008 through 2013 were in the age group of 19 to 24. Many test takers only need to attempt to pass the test the first time. Out of 2,000 randomly sampled males and females, the data showed that a higher proportion of males than females pass the test in the first attempt. There was no significant difference between the randomly sampled age groups on number of attempts. The data did indicate that Caucasian testing candidates pass the GED significantly more often on the first try than African American candidates.

The focus of this doctoral research study is making the most what a person knows and can do, as an outcome from their lifelong learning, so as to better contribute to organisational achievement. This has been motivated by a perceived gap in the extensive literature linking knowledge with organisational achievement. Whereas there is a rich body of literature addressing the meta-philosophies giving rise to the emergence of learning organisations there is, as yet, scant attention paid to the detail of planning and implementing action which would reveal individual/organisational opportunities of mutual advantage and motivate, and sustain, participation at the day-to-day level of the individual. It is in this space that this dissertation seeks to contribute by offering a mechanism for bringing the, hindsight informed, response “but that’s obvious” into the abiding explicit realm at the level of the individual. In moving beyond the obvious which is prone to be overlooked, the emphasis on “better” in the introductory sentence, is very deliberately made and has a link to awakening latent individual, and hence organisational, capabilities that would otherwise languish. The evolved LCM Model – a purposeful integration valuing the outcomes from lifelong learning (the L) with nurturing a culture supporting this outcome (the C) and with responsiveness to potentially diverse motivations (the M) – is a reflective device for bringing otherwise tacit, and latent, logic into the explicit realm of action. In the course of the development of the model, a number of supplementary models included in this dissertation have evolved from the research. They form a suite of devices which inform action and lead to making the most of what an individual knows and can do within the formal requirements of a job and within the informal influences of a frequently invisible community of practice. The initial inquiry drew upon the views and experiences of water industry engineering personnel and training facilitators associated with the contract cleaning and waste management industries. However, the major research occurred as an Emergency Management Australia (EMA) project with the Country Fire Authority (CFA) as the host organisation. This EMA/CFA research project explored the influence of making the most of what a CFA volunteer knows and can do upon retention of that volunteer. In its aggregate, across the CFA volunteer body, retention is a critical community safety objective. A qualitative research, ethnographic in character, approach was adopted. Data was collected through interviews, workshops and outcomes from attempts at action research projects. Following an initial thirteen month scoping study including respondents other than from the CFA, the research study moved into an exploration of the efficacy of an indicative model with four contextual foci – i.e. the manner of welcoming new members to the CFA, embracing training, strengthening brigade sustainability and leadership. Interestingly, the research environment which forced a truncated implementation of action research projects was, in itself, an informing experience indicative of inhibitors to making the most of what people know and can do. Competition for interest, time and commitment were factors governing the manner in which CFA respondents could be called upon to explore the efficacy of the model, and were a harbinger of the influences shaping the more general environment of drawing upon what CFA volunteers know and can do. Subsequent to the development of the indicative model, a further 16 month period was utilised in the ethnographic exploration of the relevance of the model within the CFA as the host organisation. As a consequence, the model is a more fully developed tool (framework) to aid reflection, planning and action. Importantly, the later phase of the research study has, through application of the model to specific goals within the CFA, yielded operational insight into its effective use, and in which activity systems have an important place. The model – now confidently styled as the LCM Model – has three elements that when enmeshed strengthen the likelihood of organisational achievement ; and the degree of this meshing, as relevant to the target outcome, determines the strength of outcome. i.e. - • Valuing outcomes from learning: When a person recognises and values (appropriately to achievement by the organisation) what they know and can do, and associated others recognise and value what this person knows and can do, then there is increased likelihood of these outcomes from learning being applied to organisational achievement. • Valuing a culture that is conducive to learning: When a person, and associated others, are further developing and drawing upon what they know and can do within the context of a culture that is conducive to learning, then there is increased likelihood that outcomes from learning will be applied to organisational achievement. • Valuing motivation of the individual: When a person’s motivation to apply what they know and can do is valued by them, and associated others, as appropriate to organisational achievement then there is increased likelihood that appropriately drawing upon outcomes from learning will occur. Activity theory was employed as a device to scope and explore understanding of the issues as they emerged in the course of the research study. Viewing the data through the prism of activity theory led not only to the development of the LCM Model but also to an enhanced understanding of the role of leadership as a foundation for acting upon the model. Both formal and informal leadership were found to be germane in asserting influence on empowering engagement with learning and drawing upon its outcomes. It is apparent that a “leaderful organisation”, as postulated by Raelin (2003), is an environment which supports drawing upon the LCM model; and it may be the case that the act of drawing upon the model will move a narrowly leadership focused organisation toward leaderful attributes. As foreshadowed at the beginning of this synopsis, nurturing individual and organisational capability is the guiding mantra for this dissertation - “Capability embraces competence but is also forward-looking, concerned with the realisation of potential” (Stephenson 1998, p. 3). Although the inquiry focussed upon a need for CFA volunteer retention, it began with a broader investigation as part of the scoping foundation and the expanded usefulness of the LCM Model invites further investigation. The dissertation concludes with the encapsulating sentiment that “You have really got to want to”. With this predisposition in mind, this dissertation contributes to knowledge through the development and discussion of the LCM model as a reflective device informing transformative learning (Mezirow and Associates 1990). A leaderful environment (Raelin 2003) aids transformative learning – accruing to the individual and the organisation - through engendering and maintaining making the most of knowledge and skill – motivating and sustaining “the will”. The outcomes from this research study are a strong assertion that wanting to make the most of what is known and can be done is a hallmark of capability. Accordingly, this dissertation is a contribution to the “how” of strengthening the capability, and the commitment to applying that capability, of an individual and an organisation.

This research is in the management discipline, more specifically in human resource management concerned with staffing. It examines a relatively new phenomenon: career changes by a special cadre of individuals who have advanced education and training, perhaps a doctoral degree in sciences, humanities, or engineering, and who, at the dusk of their careers, became entrepreneurial and strive to switch from an executive position in business to an academic post or vice versa. In the light of recent societal and environmental developments, and the fact that people more often change careers, there is a growing need for systematic assessment processes. For people who want to change careers at an older age, there are no assessment models available and consulting agencies have not specialized in these areas. By using the assessment methodology developed in this research, it is possible to assess a person’s lifelong careers and to use these assessments in recruitment situations. The models explain how to select shortlisted candidates. The models are based on learning theory, especially experiential learning theory which is particularly important for candidates with lifelong careers and older exam certificates. The models give special attention to the learning that has taken place in practice for people aspiring to change careers. The respondents of the empirical study were of this type. Ten people with lifelong careers were interviewed through a narrative method but guided through a learning model of content, incentive, and interaction. Their cases have been related to experiential learning theory to give a foundation for developing an assessment methodology of lifelong careers. The concepts of competence and employability are central, as assessment has to be towards an object and purpose: a candidate for a job in a recruitment situation. The special characteristic of this study is that it deals with people who show entrepreneurial behavior by shifting to business after a long career in academia, or vice versa. For them a lifewide career can be described by the occupation they have had in the two professions, academia and business. Lifelong careers give candidates possibilities to see their lives’ courses in retrospect and to assess their careers. Based on recruitment criteria set up by the employer, candidates have the opportunity to deliver information and evidence for employability through describing their competences to assessors. Special weight should be put on describing the life courses through eras of their professional lives and what has motivated them in specific eras – and especially what has motivated them to change careers. The portfolio is a tool suitable for lifelong career reporting – especially on the candidate side as this gives him a “database” from which he can tailor job applications and address employer requirements. On the employer side, there is a need for assessment methods to select the best candidates. With the assessment methodology developed in this research, employers have models and tools for more objective recruitment of candidates. This research provides concrete methods for assessing candidates and models for quantitatively prioritizing shortlisted candidates. The aim of the study is to make assessment methodology and tools for recruiting purposes, especially for entrepreneurial people with a lifelong career.