Adult education in Latvia is administered at three levels - national, municipal and institutional. Ministry of Education and Science is the leading institution responsible for adult education policy development and coordination. Ministry of Education and Science (MoED) is responsible for development of legislative acts, co-ordination of adult education policy implementation and setting of finance allocation principles involving data base and research findings. MoED establishes a definite financing mechanism and defines its resources (national, ESF, employers, private), identifies target groups, specifying fields of responsibility for the ministries involved:
- MoED – provision for employee competitiveness in labour market by enhancing basic competences, developing professional competences and re-qualification in accordance with labour market requirements;
- Ministry of Welfare (MoW) – provision for the unemployed, short-term labour forecasts, provision for immediate demand for adult education;
- Ministry of Economics (MoE) – provision for specific skills and competences necessary for the implementation of concrete assignments as requested by employers and implemented by their strong involvement (practice placements, courses).
Local governments, planning regions, entrepreneurs and social partners: Employers’ Confederation, Chamber of Commerce and Trade Unions are involved in the co-ordination and implementation of adult education policy.
Local governments have certain responsibilities in adult education provision within their territories. According to the Education Law, one of the competences of local governments in education is to implement adult education policy and issue licences for non-formal education programmes. Some municipalities have maintained public adult education centres in their territories.
Other institutions responsible for adult education policy development and implementation in cooperation with the Ministry of the Education and Science are Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior, local governments and NGO’s.
Ministries dealing with fields of economy that employ classified professionals promote and support adult education in terms of professional qualification upgrading, e.g., Ministry of Justice. The Regulations On the Capacity of Court System and Strengthening Human Resource Capacity and Competences for Judical System Employees were passed on 9 March 2015.