The provision of adult education in Malta is guided by the Malta National Lifelong Strategy 2020 which was adopted to reach the goals of the Framework for Education Strategy for Malta 2014-2024. This framework was adopted by the then Ministry for Education and Employment after the European Council passed a resolution in 2011 for a renewed  European Agenda for Adult Learning. [1] 

The Lifelong Learning Strategy aims to accelerate the Maltese reform agenda for education and training and to invest in more efficient and high quality education and training.[2] This strategy was drawn up to provide the adults with tangible opportunities for relevant education beyond compulsory schooling age. 

The rapid changes taking place in society, affecting both the personal and the working life of citizens, necessitate that measures are put in place to address the ongoing educational requirements of people in different stages of their lives. These include people who are in employment and seek self-fulfilment in learning to those in phases of ‘non-paid’ work; those who wish to use education to up-skill their careers and people in their third age. [3]

The Malta National Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020, drafted by the  Lifelong Learning Unit (which forms part of the Directorate for Research, Lifelong Learning and Employability within the Ministry for Education), identified five strategies[4] by which to attain its aims of facilitating personalised and supportive learning systems for all adults in the Maltese Islands:

1.      To stimulate participation in lifelong learning by Maltese adults by creating a demand and a desire for learning. This latent demand does not lie solely among those with low-skills and at risk of poverty and social exclusion, but also among people in employment who wish to further their skills set and who seek job mobility;

2.      To place the ‘learner’ at the centre of the leaning process by optimising all possible types of innovative learning methods and environments to make learning flexible, personal, accessible and relevant. This implies a commitment to alternative pathways beyond those defined by formal learning;

3.      To improve skills sets that contribute to professional development, employment mobility and active citizenship;

4.      To develop support structures for adult learning;

5.      To improve governance in the lifelong learning sector, exploring the structural, institutional, fiscal, legal, political and administrative measures that are available. The legal framework regulating the lifelong learning sector is the Education Act - Chapter 327 of the Laws of Malta.  ________________________________________ [1] Borg Carmel, Mayo Peter and Raykou Milosh (2016), Adult Learning in Malta: Insights into Current Participation, Content and Forms of Adult Learning, University of Malta. [2] Ministry for Education and Employment (2014), Malta National Lifelong Learning,   p. 5, available on <https://education.gov.mt/en/Documents/Malta%20National%20Lifelong%20Learning%20Strategy%202020.pdf>, accessed on 22nd March 2021. [3] Ibid. [4] Ibid, p. 19.