The role of adult education in improving the labour market position of people without a secondary-school-leaving certificate (A-levels)

Access to education and training, and the quality of education, learning and knowledge have an effect on the competitiveness of a society and its economic growth. Therefore, creating the conditions for a knowledge-based economy and society are now commonly considered as goals to be achieved, the importance of investment into human capital is increasing, and lifelong learning as well as the development of competences required for the latter are becoming a priority. In this context, the need for and the role of adult education have also increased. Adult education can offer a way to correct the deficiencies of formal school education, it can complement insufficient knowledge, and it can provide retraining and further education. As a result, adult education contributes to the improvement of the individuals' labour market position and social status and has an influence on social and economic processes. People who lag behind as regards their qualifications, abilities and skills may get excluded from society. People with educational disadvantages are often incapable of entering the world of labour, which entails a higher risk of poverty, since income inequalities are still fundamentally determined by educational attainment and the labour market situation. Adult education can provide an opportunity for unqualified, under-qualified and/or unemployed people to obtain or supplement missing or obsolete qualifications, to improve their skills and thus to acquire the "forms of capital" necessary for their integration into the labour market and society. In the course of a study we would like to point out to what extent these people's participation in adult education can contribute to their (re)integration into the labour market in Hungary, and whether it is really a second chance for them.