Globalisation has created new challenges and opportunities for the economies and society in general which causes changes in all sectors, also adult education that has to find ways how to ensure provision of quality education to all adults.

The European Agenda for Adult Learning (2011), among other issues targeted for action, highlight the following challenges: “increasing the possibilities for all adults to access flexible, high-quality learning at any time in their lives; developing new approaches to adult education focusing on learning outcomes; raising awareness that learning is a lifelong endeavour; developing effective lifelong guidance systems and systems for validating non-formal and informal learning” (EPALE, 2020), developing pedagogical leadership; teacher didactical competences; financial provision; cooperation with external stakeholders; response to labour market needs (Dollhausen, et.al, 2013).

“Quality is considered a key platform in adult education and learning, particularly in a labour market which is becoming increasingly specialised, demanding and flexible regarding skills and competences workers need to learn throughout their working lives” (Babrauskiene, 2017).

Quality assurance in education and training refers to all the activities of organizing a learning process – planning, implementation, evaluation, reporting, and quality improvement, the measures to be taken that the quality would meet the quality requirements expected by stakeholders (CEDEFOP, 2011,134).

However, assuring education quality in adult education is a complex task. Therefore, it is necessary to set clear objectives for the individual learning processes that will be subjected to quality assurance or quality measurement. (Faurschou, 2008).

An adult participating in a learning process is characterized by a certain level of social maturity, stability of the way of life, system of values, sense of real goals and practical life experience (Hubackova, Semradova, 2014) and these characteristics differentiate adult learners from other learners. The main emphasis is laid on planning of the learning process rather than on its content. “Adult learning is voluntary, self-directed, practical, and participatory” (Hedeen, et.al., 2010,159).

Prior research conducted worldwide on contemporary challenges in adult education quality assurance point to insufficient skills of adult learners to participate in adult education using various online and blended-learning courses (Zamora, et.al., 2018; Francois, 2013). The dropout rates from online and blended-learning courses indicate that learner participation in them is a concern (Blieck, et.al., 2019). Other challenges are related with the learning content – engaging all learners in activities and sustaining their learning motivation (Janssen, 2011; Coutinho, et.al, 2012), and accessibility issues of quality education because of various barriers (Solem, et.al, 2006). Quality assurance models for digital adult education materials (Dimou, Kameas, 2016), and quality issues concerning various adult education providers (Geroimenko, et.al., 2012) have become especially significant in the current situation when due to Covid-19 pandemics all the world switched to online learning.

In ECER2019 the authors presented the results of their research exploring the current situation and perceptions of quality assurance in adult education in Latvia (Luka et al., 2020). In ECER2021 the authors aim to present the results of the analysis of contemporary adult education challenges and how they are solved in the legislation and legal enactments of the country and in practice.

Contribution analyses the latest scientific literature obtained from electronic data bases and the most important legal enactments and strategies of the EU and Latvia concerning adult education currently in force such as Next Generation EU, 2020; European skills agenda 2020; Education Law of Latvia (1999), Vocational Education Law (1999), Law on Institutions of Higher Education (1995), Sustainable Development Strategy of Latvia until 2030 “Latvia 2030” (2010), etc.

Research question: How are the EU contemporary adult education quality challenges reflected in the legislation of Latvia and how are they solved in practice?

As a point of departure for the work on quality assurance, it is assumed that an adult is interested in learning and that adult learning is most successful when they find learning meaningful, involve their experiences in the learning process, have improved their ability to act in private life or at work as well as assume responsibility in the learning process (Faurschou, 2008). Quality assurance consists of three major areas: structural quality (the organization and resources, prerequisites in a broad context), process quality (the internal activities, involving the work with learning) and result quality (how and within which areas the participant has developed their competences) (Faurschou, 2008). The current exploratory research was conducted in Latvia in 2019-2021 to evaluate adult education quality assurance applying Faurschou’s (2008) approach. To answer the research question and identify and comprehensively analyse challenges in education, as suggested by (Dollhausen, et.al, 2013) they are addressed at institutional, regional and national level. Research methods: 1.Data collection methods: 1) systematic literature search and review (Booth, et.al., 2016) of scholarly articles, monographs, research reports, etc. published applying limitations as to the language (Latvian and English) and electronic databases: Web of Science, SCOPUS, EBSCO, ERIH+ applying keywords ‘challenges in adult education’, ‘challenges in adult education quality assurance’, ‘quality assurance in adult education’, as well as analysis of legal enactments on adult education in the EU and Latvia. 2) seven expert interviews with adult education providers and evaluators at institutional, regional and national levels. Interviewees represent: 1) the responsible person from the Ministry of Education and Science of the country – the policy developer at national level who primarily develops, implements and monitors adult education quality; 2) an expert of education of Kurzeme planning region who is primarily involved in organising and implementing of adult education at a regional level; 3) at institutional level – directors and adult educators from several Adult Education centers of Latvia; 4) an international expert in adult education representing the country at ASEM (Asia-Europe) Education and Research Hub for LLL. 2.Data analysis methods: 1) the data obtained was analysed according to the quality assurance criteria: structural quality – organisational resources (management aspect) and tools, measures; process quality – implementation process, pedagogy, content; result quality – competence development, link with the labor market. 2) interviews were analysed applying qualitative data analysis strategies (Walliman, 2016).

First challenge - increasing the possibilities for all adults to access flexible, high-quality learning at any time in their lives is reflected in the legislation of Latvia as focus only on education levels and forms, but not also on diversity; quality; accessibility to education for different groups, regardless of age, gender, health, place of residence and income. Next challenge - developing new approaches to adult education focusing on learning outcomes is applied in practice: challenges identified in research concerning adult education quality in Latvia deal with higher and vocational education and are connected with setting of measurable sustainable goals in higher education and their relation to other sustainability contexts: economics, society, environment, use of technology (Daniela et.al.,2019) in implementing contemporary teaching/learning models such as online digital learning (Mykhailenko et.al.,2019). Whereas in recent studies in vocational education the emphasis is placed on leadership and professional development of managers of Latvian vocational education institutions as a significant factor influencing the education quality (Fernández González et.al.,2019). But challenge - raising awareness that learning is a lifelong endeavor is reflected in the Education Law of Latvia. However, according to the expert interviews: “adults lack motivation to engage in learning, more support is required.” Developing effective lifelong guidance systems and systems for validating non-formal and informal learning as challenge is only partly solved in practice, because according to the expert interviews, in Latvia adult education is still a complex and quite underdeveloped field of education, a unified system of work has not been developed yet. At regional level there is a wish to engage as many people as possible in adult education, whereas in practice a contradiction is observed. At institutional level challenges are related with employing highly qualified adult educators for some fields, the insufficient level of learners’ digital skills.

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