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Lifelong Education: Concept and Issues Concerning an Ageing Population

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Education for the Elderly in the Asia Pacific

Part of the book series: Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects ((EDAP,volume 59))

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Abstract

It has been established that, during the period 1975–2025, the size of the elderly age group in all developed countries will increase from 19 to 55 million people. In lesser developed regions, there will be 67 million people aged 80 and over in 2025. If we believe in lifelong learning, we must be concerned about education throughout the lifespan of people. The major component of lifelong education relates to adults and older adults in particular. The major benefit of education for adults is to help them prepare for or cope with different stages of life, which is known as the “lifespan development” theory (Thomas, Convergence 18:4–7, 1985). Currently, every country considers lifelong learning to be an imperative national tool to build a competitive workforce for disruptive areas. There is evidence that a formal education system can no longer support the demand of human capital development, especially among older age groups, so up-skills and re-skills are vital for a country to enhance its human capital to propel the nation into economic development. Moreover, with ageing societies all over the world, for the last decade, active ageing has been adopted as a global strategy in ageing policies. Research has revealed that lifelong education is related to the quality of life and the well-being of the aged, and lifelong learning is the best approach to promote employability and active citizens (Albert, Richter, & Nejdl, W. British Journal of Educational Technology 35:701–715, 2004; Narushima, Lou, & Diestelkamp Ageing & Society 38:651–675, 2018). This lifelong learning should be considered as a main issue which would serve as one way to deal with present global concerns.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term comparatively resonates the social behavior in bees, which live in complex societies where several generations coexist in a single nest at the same time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand

    Pennee Narot & Narong Kiettikunwong

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  1. Pennee Narot
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  2. Narong Kiettikunwong
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Correspondence to Narong Kiettikunwong .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand

    Pennee Narot

  2. College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand

    Narong Kiettikunwong

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Narot, P., Kiettikunwong, N. (2021). Lifelong Education: Concept and Issues Concerning an Ageing Population. In: Narot, P., Kiettikunwong, N. (eds) Education for the Elderly in the Asia Pacific. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 59. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3326-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3326-3_1

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