L'urgenza di investire nell'apprendimento continuo degli adulti in una società complessa e mutevole

The twentieth century saw the emergence of a new vision of adulthood, which also adequately considers the informal and non-formal skills of the adult person, to help him in the process of lifelong learning. Until the 1980s people were seen according to a Fordist-Taylorist vision of work and the wealth it could offer. The 21st century, with its brought about scientific and technological progress, instead, began with the awareness of having to invest in the changes that involve and transform people. Lifelong learning must be inserted in the context of the community to which it belongs, as well as the influence it is capable towards adults, but above all towards the acquisition of new skills and planning towards new forms of interaction between people, starting from new educational and work environments. Mezirow, starting from the Action Learning of Revans, has developed these new scientific strands that insist on the interaction between people and the need to transform themselves (Transformative Learning) by acquiring new patterns of meaning in the course of one's life. The European Union and its institutions have recognized this new approach to lifelong learning through specific recommendations and pathways which are promoting an "Italian way" to adulthood.