Importance of Education for Adults

Introduction

When discussing education, whether in the context of nation-building, polity, or the budget, what is being referred to is child education - specifically, the education of children in the age group of six to fourteen years. Even in a nuanced discussion of education does the prospect of adult education arise. However, the importance of education for adults is highly disregarded in the grand scheme of political discussions about education.

What is Adult Education

Adult education is nothing but education that is aimed at mature learners who have already taken part in the workforce. In simple terms, adult education is the education of people who are currently serving as part of a viable profession. Learning as a mature learner gives individuals the chance to acquire new skills and build on their knowledge. It aims at teaching their learner everything from literacy to numeracy. When talking about the importance of education in society, the importance of education for adults always seems to take a backseat. Adult learners actually take up subjects such as sciences, languages, as well as a range of other important subjects.

Destigmatizing Adult Education

The emphasis on the importance of education of adults should go hand in hand with destigmatizing adult education on a large scale. Adult education has always been a sort of unspoken norm of the adult world, with people who do their further schooling, college, or even post-graduation in a sort of skeptical light. However, this mindset is from a long time ago, when finding work was much easier because it mostly involved unskilled labor. As time went by, there was an increasing emphasis on skilled labor and for people to possess skilled labor it was necessary for the inter have an education in that particular field. This led to more and more adults looking toward completing or taking up new degrees that are related to their line of work and as a result, a large chunk of the adult population of all countries are pursuing some or the other kind of education.

Benefits of Adult Education

As a means of highlighting the importance of education for adults here are some of the benefits of adult education.

Combating Illiteracy

The importance of education for adults is most profound in that it combats illiteracy extremely effectively. In fact, it is the fastest way to remove illiteracy from society. Adult education can be categorized under the following headings for facilitating education at different levels:

  • Fundamental education
  • Mass education of people
  • Worker’s education
  • Further education
  • Basic education
  • Community education
  • Social education

Illiteracy is a very real threat to India's goals of becoming a fighter didn't all the economy by the end of the decade and so it is imperative that has many adults need to be educated so that they can land jobs that can eat in the overall growth and development of the country as a whole.

Improves Employability

One of the main reasons that a lot of multinational companies do not higher from India is that even though Indians are qualified for the job they do not have the skills necessary for doing that job, that is the employability of the candidate is low. With low employability, it is only natural that a lot shank of people are currently unemployed even though they do have qualifications for doing jobs. This is where the importance of education for adults comes in. The candidates must be trained in a field of work beforehand so that they are employable by companies. This brings us to the next point.

Development of Skills

The main thing that highlights the importance of education for these individuals is the development of skills corresponding to their line of work.  In the wake of economic crises taking place all over the world today, it comes as no surprise that adults need to retrain themselves for the current times, which is especially important for people who will need to work past pension age and hence will need to train themselves for a new role.

A Pay Raise

This is also a very important reason for mature learners to resume their studies or take up a different line of education. This is being seen increasingly in today's world because of people's interest in saving and acquiring more money. Usually, this involves people with bachelor's degrees going for a master's degree or people with master's degrees looking towards taking a Ph.D.

Conclusion

Learning is not a time-bound pursuit - it is a lifelong journey, and both education and acquisition of knowledge occur for the entire lifetime of an individual. After all, We learn something new every day, as the saying goes. When looking at it from that light, not even formal education is solely the privilege of children or young adults. Adult education provides mature learners the chance to learn more and hone their skill set in the way that they wish to. It opens up avenues for learners to get into different niches and learn new skills or develop the skills they already have.

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