Financing adult learning: The role of public funding

The European commitment to increasing adult participation in learning is essential to improve employability, boost innovation, ensure social fairness, and close the digital skills gap. As the widely cited Draghi report on the future of EU competitiveness states: ‘While Europe should aim to match the US in terms of innovation, we should aim to exceed the US in providing opportunities for education and adult learning and good jobs for all throughout their lifetimes’. One of the key priorities for the new Commission is to address skills and labour gaps, particularly by establishing a Union of Skills. This aims to ensure that everyone in Europe, no matter where they are, is empowered to build solid skills foundations and engage in lifelong upskilling and reskilling.

Funding plays an important role in providing adult learning opportunities. Achieving the ambitious EU Social Pillar target to increase the level of adult learning requires a corresponding increase in financing from different sources. Currently, public support for adult learning in the EU stands at around 0.5% of GDP, representing around one third of the total, with the rest mostly covered by employers (including public employers) dedicated to employee training. This highlights the important role of government in co-financing adult learning, which can take many forms, including grants, tax incentives, and publicly financed provision of learning opportunities.

To ensure adequate and sustainable funding for adult learning, there is a need for the right strategy and institutional set-up to mobilise public and stimulate private investment, including cost-sharing arrangements. It is important to find the appropriate role for public financing in adult learning systems, and to strike a balance between the different financing instruments – publicly financed provision, financial incentives, and other support for individuals and companies – to maximise the impact of limited public resources. The objective of the conference is to provide an overview of the various public funding instruments dedicated to adult learning, and to reflect on their future. In particular, the conference will present recent Cedefop research on the following topics:

• The overall structures of public (co-)financing for adult learning across the EU, drawing on dedicated ReferNet country-specific reports, and on the Cedefop database on financing adult learning.
• Financial support for individuals to take up learning, with a focus on individual learning accounts, presenting the results of a dedicated Cedefop study on the topic.
• Arrangements to incentivise employers to provide training, presenting the results of recent Cedefop study on Training Funds in the EU, and an upcoming report on the results of the latest round of the CVTS survey.