In 2007, the Workers' Educational Association's (WEA) Yorkshire and Humber region was funded by the Academy for Community Leadership to deliver a programme of active citizenship learning in South Yorkshire. The programme was expected to: equip potential and existing community leaders with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to address…

A movement known as the Universities of the Third Age (U3As) provides educational, cultural and social services for mature-age people in Australia and internationally. This paper focuses on the educational courses run by U3As and discusses two basic questions: What are the expectations of learners who enrol in these classes? and How can tutors…

Building health literacy skills among adult learners has the potential to contribute to efforts to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes. Adults with limited literacy skills are more likely to be underserved by health services and at risk for poorer health. Recognition of the need for stronger health literacy skills and a desire…

Enthusiastic learners acting as community learning champions (CLCs) are scarcely a novelty. There has been a surge of interest in what they have to offer in the last couple of years, thanks in large part to a government programme, which has funded training and support for learning champions through 50 community projects across the country, and a…

Background: This paper discusses the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention's effort to develop a web-based service called Project CREATE that responds to a need for targeted health promotion materials expressed by directors of HIV/STD prevention services in predominately rural states. Purpose: Project CREATE allows users to select customized…

Health literacy, the ability to obtain and understand information and services to make good health decisions, has received much attention recently. Literacy is a stronger predictor of health status than age, income, race, ethnicity, employment status, or educational level. Inadequate health literacy costs the United States an estimated $100-$236…

The learning community plays an important role in expanding lifelong learning ideas in social units such as cities, towns, and communities. Some European countries, Australia, Japan, Korea, and China are employing the idea of learning community to promote lifelong learning in local communities. In an effort to address recent social problems, China…

The making of changes inside prisons necessarily implies education. In Thailand, the point is not only to organise professional training courses but also to make detainees aware of the fact that they belong to a community of values. Non-formal education allows the necessary flexibility to an individual approach of training that must take into…

Background: This study was originally prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy (September 2007) with the objective of analysing the costs of successful adult literacy programmes run both by government ministries, as well as international and national non-governmental organisations. Objectives: This study aims to increase…

Adult education services, including education for those lacking basic literacy and numeracy, preparation for the high school equivalency diploma, and English-as-a-second-language courses, play a crucial role in bridging the basic skills gap for Latinos and other workers with limited formal education and training. With recent policy and program…

The need for adequate functional English literacy and numeracy instruction for the herdsmen in Osun State in Nigeria arose as a result of the persistent clashes between the herdsmen and their neighbours. In all, 48 participants (22 adults and 26 children and youths) took part in the International Reading Association assisted functional literacy…

This is the twenty-fourth edition of the Adult Basic Education (ABE) Articulation Handbook for British Columbia's public post-secondary institutions. It has been updated for 2009-2010 through the dedicated efforts of the educators who participate in the working and steering committees. Articulation is a dynamic process that will never be…

In order to realise the strategic aim of constructing new socialist rural communities in the 21st century, "new farmers' education" has been placed on the Chinese government's agenda and will soon become a very important issue of Chinese adult education in both research and its practice. As an adult educational researcher I first…

This article examines the development and the legacy of a policy making experience that was undertaken in Brazil from 2004 to 2006, under a project labelled "Educating for Freedom". The project sought to provide prison inmates with access to education. It was carried out by a coalition that comprised the Ministry of Education, the…

In this article, the author reports on how a state-of-the-art learning centre based in an old storeroom at First Bus's Orpington depot came into being with support from the Transport and General Workers Union, the European Social Fund, the Learning and Skills Council, and eventually from First Group. The author also describes how it has…