Adult Education Survey (AES) 2022 - Statistical infrastructure under IESS

ended

For the last two decades, Lifelong learning has been one of the main policy focuses in Europe and wider and therefore included in various strategies and work programmes in the field of Education as well as Employment. Participation of adults in lifelong learning has been and continues to be a strategic issue in European policy agenda (Europe 2020 strategy) as well as at a national level in Slovenia (Resolution on the Master Plan for Adult Education in the Republic of Slovenia for 2013-2020 as well as for 2021-2030). Enhancing the skills of the adult population is the basis of various national and European agendas and actions. To support such policies and actions high-quality data on participation in formal, non-formal and informal education, their characteristics and skills acquired are crucial. Adult Education Survey (AES) is designed to provide countries and EU bodies with such data. AES is a complex survey with many variables that will be carried out for the fourth time in 2022. As regards the content the previous (2016) AES was assessed as good, meeting user needs well. To maintain coherence over the years content has not been changed significantly. However, the inclusion of AES in the new integrated European social statistics framework regulation (IESS) – Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 has led to few methodological changes (changes in the population covered, population definition, etc.), standardized variables have been defined. These changes combined with changed or improved variables and of course new developments in the society demand a considerable amount of methodological work that has to be carried out to ensure the data we collect is of high quality and representative for the population observed. This action will contribute to the provision of internationally comparable results and data at the level of the European Union. In Slovenia, the start of the WEB questionnaire is scheduled for September 2022, and the start of the CAPI in October 2022.