The paper considers non-formal adult education. For this purpose, various classifications of adult education, forms of non-formal education and its advantages were presented. Activities of the Academy of Beautiful Time – initiative implemented by City Public Library in Czechowice-Dziedzice were characterized. The objectives of the Academy, ways of achieving the objectives and permissions of the listeners were presented. The paper also analyzes statistical data on the Academy of Beautiful Time, such as the number of students, the number of people participating in the courses, the number of hours of education and discusses the form of educational activity within the Academy. The article highlights the role of public libraries in the process of non-formal education and directions of development of the Academy of Beautiful Time in Czechowice-Dziedzice were formulated.

Leading UNESCO activities in the field of lifelong learning.

Contemporary society is looking for solutions that will respond to the challenges and requirements of civilization. With the development of new technologies and the Internet it is necessary to acquire appropriate competences to be able to navigate the network and virtual world. The article presents selected activities of the international organization of UNESCO in the field of lifelong learning and media education. UNESCO has a rich tradition of reflections and actions for continuing education and media education. The subject of lifelong learning education appeared in the first years of the organization’s activity and continues to be one of the main challenges it faces. Education of the 21st century needs constant modifications that will be improved along with technological development. In the article, the Conferences in Montreal and Nairobi were compared, the views of J. Kidd and P. Lengrand, the Faure report and the Delaros report.

The learning to learn competence is becoming more and more important, as it enables efficient learning, is developing awareness and planning one‘s own process of learning. With empirical research, we wanted to study some of its aspects in the 4th year (undergraduate) and 1st year students (postgraduate) of the Faculties of Education in Slovenia. To establish the students‘ evaluation of their ways of learning and competence to teach we used a questionnaire. With the use of the research, we established the growth of evaluation of the majority of aspects, which shows that the learning to learn competence is related to a better evaluation of students’ own way of learning and better marks. Reported findings reveal that this competence and its aspects have a great impact on the effectiveness of learning and success of students.

This article aims to note the importance of non-formal education in the context of lifelong learning, especially in last phase. A secondary analysis of empirical research, conducted in Germany as part of a unique project “Competencies in Later Life” (CiLL), is the starting point for a reflection on the necessity of support of educational processes, enabling the development of qualifications after leaving formal education system. This study allowed to determine the level of competence of literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments of the population aged 66-80 years.The conclusions of the study are clear: in connection with a deficit of the core competencies of older people is needed educational offer. Participation in education can prevent exclusion from social life.

Information technology evolves in order to meet the needs of ageing society. Despite the life-long learning perspective and availability of ICT courses, studies indicate that only a limited number of seniors take full advantage of possibilities given by mobile technology and the Internet. The question arises if the old are part of the Information Society or they are excluded from it. This article provides evidence that seniors underutilise the ICT devices and e-services and indicates the main lines of the recent debates on the current need for ICT education among older adults. The analysis of seniors’ ICT competence is based on a literature survey.

The aim of the article is to present selected themes that form part of the contemporary discourse on informal learning, which since the 1970s has dominated the scientific debate on learning, especially in the area of adult education. The authors, using Polish and German-language literature, outline areas of scientific and research interest, as well as tendencies in the contemporary approach to the learning processes of adolescents and adults. Moreover, they present exemplary results of research on informal learning, conducted within various fields: adult education, social pedagogy, economics and others. They indicate that separate treatment of human learning (division into formal, non-formal, and informal learning) is not always justified, and is not conducive to the analysis of learning processes.

The aim of the article is to compare the situation of lifelong learning in Central European countries. Six countries were selected for the study: Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic, and the Czech Republic. The research is based on data from the International Survey of Adult Skills (OECD PIAAC). Respondents 30 years old and over were selected for analysis because a significant proportion of younger people have not yet completed their formal studies. According to the analysis, Estonian adults are most often involved in lifelong learning activities, while representatives from the Slovak Republic are the least involved. In all countries, those with above high school education are the most likely to participate in lifelong learning activities compared to those with lower than high school education and with high school education. In different countries, different kinds of learning activities prevail.

Little is known about nurses’ viewpoints, experience, and opinions regarding this issue even though lifelong learning and distance education are of great importance in nursing. It is important to have knowledge about nurses’ lifelong-learning tendencies and attitudes toward distance education when structuring related education programmes. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between nurses’ lifelong-learning tendencies and their attitudes toward distance education. This is a descriptive research design with a stratified random sample. The sample included 417 nurses. The Lifelong-Learning Tendencies Scale and the Distance Education Attitude Scale were used to collect data. SPSS for Windows 16.0 was used for statistical analysis. Our results show that nurses do not tend to engage in lifelong learning, and they experience uncertainty in their attitudes toward distance education. We found a weak negative correlation between lifelong-learning tendencies and attitudes toward distance education. Continuing education programmes should be designed to improve and support nurses’ attitudes toward lifelong learning and distance education. Distance education supports nurses’ lifelong learning by updating their post-graduation knowledge improving comprehension about developments that affect and consciously broaden their viewpoint and intellectual level. Continuing education programmes to enhance nurses’ personal and professional development should be designed to improve their attitudes toward lifelong learning and distance education.

The Research Studio eLearning Environments has developed the “Learning Pulse”. The “Learning Pulse” makes use of a PUSH technology and supports repetitive learning activities by utilizing ICT. The PUSH technology is based on external initiation of a learning activity. This terminology is derived from webapplication programming. This article reflects on the background and the relationship between the “Learning Pulse” and lifelong learning, focusing on aspects of motivation, flexibility, and learner dropouts. In the second part the idea behind the “Learning Pulse” is compared with the settings in which “conventional” self directed learning takes place. Based on these assumptions it is described how the PUSH approach can be used for embedding learning activities into the daily routine of a learner.

The evolution of theoretical learning concepts brings new stimuli to lifelong learning practice. One of the new theoretical bases appropriate for adult education is an experiential learning theory which analyses and evaluates educational projects and study materials for distance learning as well as e-learning educational programmes from the standpoint of potential learning effectiveness. At the same time, it can be a gnoseological theoretical basis of designing educational programmes for adults, either on a theoretical basis of distance learning, e-learning, or on the basis of their purposeful integration, which is becoming more and more frequent in andragogy. The study gives general tenets of andragogy, presents the main characteristics of experiential learning along with its two major developmental variants – Kolb’s cycle and Jarvis´ revised model of the processes of learning. It defines the basic features of distance learning and e-learning, and formulates general stimuli how to apply experiential learning within these relatively integral educational technologies. In conclusion, it brings about information on practical use of theoretical approaches to teaching pedagogical subjects within educational programmes at universities.

The article is dedicated to the research of soft skills structural units and their formation of future social workers, as well as the issue of their professional growth and development. Professional skills consist of specific knowledge and abilities important for performing a particular job and that can be mostly identified, evaluated and measured. Until now, there was a perception that hard or functional- -technical skills were the only skills needed for career growth and development. However, a study carried out at Harvard University shows that 80% of career achievements are determined by soft (social and communication) skills and only 20% by functional and technical skills. Since the labor market currently requires diverse professionals, higher education institutions face new challenges. One of these challenges is to create pedagogical conditions for the development of soft skills, including those of future social workers. The professional competence of a social worker involves three groups of skills, namely hard skills, soft skills and meta skills. We suppose that the mechanism of their formation in the conditions of professional training should be focused on the development of all components of soft skills, and their development provides the necessary professional qualities, the implementation of abilities, and the realization of values in social work. In accordance with the characteristics of future social workers in the development of «soft skills», its characteristic features and peculiarities are clarified, including: creating an informal environment for the formation of social leadership in higher educational institutions; filling the educational program with options for «soft skills», activities aimed at increasing the practice-oriented training of future specialists, the use of active and interactive techniques, forms, methods and means of developing the «soft skills» of social workers. The results of the study include the definition of the concept of «soft skills», the identification of their general characteristics, the outlining of groups of soft skills, and the description of their main components. It was found that the most in-demand flexible competencies are: teamwork, critical thinking, leadership, creativity, meeting deadlines, responsibility and discipline, as well as communication skills, emotional stability, ability to work in stressful situations, adaptability to a new team or working conditions, conflict resolution, critical and creative thinking, public speaking skills, reliability, flexibility, responsibility, priority setting, planning, adequate perception of criticism and readiness for improvement, and professional etiquette proficiency

The work deals with the contemporary sociological, psychological and pedagogical problems of the knowledge-based society. Special attention has been paid to the role of education in the new type of society, construction of knowledge, shaping of main job skills and abilities, semi-learning activity of individuals in lifelong learning process in public and private sectors of education during formal and informal education.