Adult education provides skills development opportunities to help Canadians find better jobs and improve well-being. Yet it remains a “poor cousin” of compulsory and higher education, disconnected from social policy and the education system at large, with its learners and teachers stigmatized.

In this episode of the PO Podcast, UBC Education Professor Jude Walker speaks with the IRPP’s ClĂ©a Desjardins about Canada’s past efforts to address these issues by creating a national adult education strategy. She offers insights from Aotearoa New Zealand, which went a long way to making adult education mainstream by integrating it into the country’s education system, professionalizing its teachers and standardizing assessments.

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Jude Walker
Jude Walker is associate professor of adult learning and education at the University of British Columbia, where she researches and teaches in the areas of educational theory, practice and policy. She is originally a Kiwi but has lived in Canada for 18 years.