Adult Education Policies in Portugal: a prospect of human empowerment or economic growth?

According to the Portuguese Recommendation of the Public Policies of Adult Education and Training, the whole process of adult education should be centred on the individuals, who should appropriate their own formative itinerary and reflect on their own practices, but also taking into account the relationships they establish with other. However, this concept of adult education remains utopian, since the practical implementation of adult education programmes does not contemplate the dimension of the adult person as a whole. The Portuguese Adult Education Strategy has succeeded in disinvesting and disarticulating socio-educational responses to the Portuguese adult population, especially when considering marginalised adults. Community-based education must be integrated into the overall adult education policy, because communities must be aware of their socio-educational obstacles and challenges – both individually and collectively – and thus, place each adult as the primary actor in the decisions that influence their own development as a person and as a member of society. It is necessary to integrate adult education and training in territorial development programmes, in social, cultural, leisure, entrepreneurship and sports projects, and implement proactive educational methodologies.