Exploring Young Adults’ Lifelong Learning Policy Participation Styles: Comparative Perspectives from Finland, Scotland, and Spain

Abstract

<p>In this chapter, we explore the meanings and motivations young adults attach to their participation in lifelong learning (LLL) policies and aim to identify LLL policy “participation styles” among young people in three functional regions across Europe: Kainuu in Finland, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Region in Scotland, and Girona in Catalonia, Spain. We examine the participation styles in relation to young adults’ displayed agency, social background and resources, and previous life course progression, as well as the different policies and regional opportunity structures. The analysis is based on biographical interviews with young adults and thematic interviews with LLL policy experts. We identified four distinct participation styles based on the examined dimensions at both individual and policy levels. Furthermore, an additional pattern emerged from the data, as some young adults were able to alter the conditions of a given policy to meet their individual needs in a way that was not institutionally foreseen. In general, the ways in which young adults orient to LLL policies and adopt particular participation styles relate to two key dimensions: young adults’ agentic capacities and the levels of (formal or hidden) leeway policies offer to young people for adapting participation to their subjective needs and goals.<br></p>