Van sociale uitsluiting naar een leven lang leren

In this adaptation of his valedictory speech as guest professor at the University of the North in South Africa, Jacques Zeelen draws up an intermediate balance of the research program which forms one of the pillars of the new-founded department of adult education. Breaking with the destructive past, Zeelen and his South African colleagues explicitly opted for an organisation, scheme and approach which should pay a constructive contribution to the broader development of competencies in the area of work, social skills and citizenship. Starting point forms the perspective wherein adult education is not merely seen as a form of second chance education, but is also directed to offering support to all sorts of social interventions. A perspective, in which the aim is not merely directed to one group (women) and the burden of proof not merely placed with one individual. It is Zeelens aspiration that this approach will enable them to build bridges between the activities employed within the academic department of adult education and the daily problems local communities are faced with.