First, the development characteristics of continuing education
(A) the rule of law is the fundamental guarantee for the development of continuing education in all countries.
The legalization of continuing education has become an effective means to develop continuing education in all countries. As early as 1944, Britain first used the concept of "continuing education" and established the status, disciplines and other related contents of continuing education. France took the lead in passing legislation and made the development of continuing education a basic national policy. In 197 1, the organization law of vocational continuing education within the scope of lifelong education (hereinafter referred to as "continuing education law") was passed, and it was revised twice 1978 and 1984, and the policy of revitalizing lifelong learning was also formulated. In the United States, 1966 promulgated the Adult Education Law, which made relevant provisions on the funding and organization of continuing education. All countries realize that the legal system can arouse the attention of the whole people to continuing education and make it develop healthily under the supervision and planning of the state.
(2) The concepts of national education and lifelong education have a positive impact on the working ideas of continuing education, and gradually constitute the guiding principles of continuing education legislation in various countries.
With the introduction and development of the concept of learning society by governments all over the world, the concept of lifelong education has strongly impacted talent education and stage education, but it has greatly promoted the development of continuing education and become the main way to build a lifelong learning system, which is called "career education" by many experts. For this reason, the concept of lifelong education has become the basic concept of continuing education reform and development in many countries and the guiding principle of continuing education legislation in various countries, thus affecting the development of western continuing education concepts and models. A typical example is that since the 1980s, western countries have generally completed the transformation of continuing education mode from "subject-based" to "ability-based", which can be summarized in one sentence, that is, "the basic point of the whole teaching goal is how to make the educated have all the necessary abilities to engage in a particular occupation." Moreover, the understanding of "all the abilities necessary to engage in a particular occupation" has gone through the process of sublation from the outside to the inside, from simple to complex, from one-sided to comprehensive, and its ultimate highlight is the cultivation of learning ability, aiming at laying the foundation for personal lifelong learning.
(3) The operation of continuing education tends to be socialized and market-oriented, but it fully affirms the macro-control function of the government.
From the perspective of economics, continuing education is not only a personal project, but also a public project, and both the parties and the government are beneficiaries. Therefore, both the government and individuals should bear corresponding responsibilities for the development of this cause, not to mention the long-term rather than immediate characteristics of continuing education will definitely restrict its "marketization" process. Therefore, all countries pay full attention to the role of the government in continuing education, and stipulate various measures of government supervision in detail in legislation. In Britain, the comprehensive adjustment effect is mainly formed through various means such as appropriation, national examination and macro-planning, and the "National Academic Degree Awarding Committee" is established to maintain unified academic standards and ensure the quality and development direction of continuing education. On the basis of legal management of continuing education, France has further strengthened its planning management, and successively formulated and implemented continuing education plans with a three-year cycle, so as to enhance the government's macro-control ability on continuing education.
However, continuing education cannot rely entirely on the government. Continuing education is a kind of non-compulsory education, and many jobs are on-the-job training, which is more directly related to the market. Therefore, it is necessary to push continuing education to the market, connect with the market, and do a good job in continuing education with market mechanism. Therefore, countries began to attach importance to the socialization and marketization of continuing education operation, and to regulate it in legislation, mainly reflected in two types of measures:
1. Constantly strengthen the public service function of professional trade organizations in continuing education, and the role of the government will be diluted and changed accordingly. For example, the American Medical Association for Continuing Education, the Australian Training Advisory Committee and the British off-campus invigilation system are all guild-like NGOs. Their activities are mainly reflected in the construction of industry and professional norms, the compilation of professional subject guides, the development of courses, the compilation of teaching materials, the improvement of teaching methods, the establishment of remote networks, the formulation of standardized indicators, and the promotion and implementation of international certification systems. Through the activities of these intermediaries, not only the burden on the government is reduced, but also the quality of continuing education is improved.
2, pay more attention to the role of social forces, pay attention to the close cooperation between the government, enterprises, schools and scientific research departments. Whether it is the development of educational methods or the financing of educational funds, all countries emphasize the full cooperation of various social forces in their legislation. Such as "cooperative education" in the United States and "sandwich" courses in Britain. Especially for the financing of continuing education, on the basis of clarifying the government's financial support responsibility, the legislation of various countries emphasizes the principle of multi-channel financing without exception. For example, according to French law, in an enterprise with more than 10 employees, the enterprise owner must use more than 1. 1% of the total wages as continuing education funds, of which 0.2% is paid to the region for employee training, 0. 1% is paid to specialized institutions for training job seekers, and 0.8% is paid. Enterprises can jointly organize training courses with relevant units, or send people to relevant training institutions to study. If there is surplus, it must be turned over to the state, and if it is used for other purposes, it will be punished. The laws of Japan and the United States have similar provisions, and Britain even raises funds for continuing education by issuing lottery tickets.
(4) Continuously improve the management system of continuing education and highlight the effectiveness of continuing education.
Countries have taken various measures to strengthen the supervision of continuing education and the recognition of legislative achievements, which can be summarized as two aspects:
First, formulate scientific and concrete quality evaluation methods and form a good mechanism to encourage continuous learning. The EU proposes that all European countries should establish a "knowledge recognition system". Starting with the establishment of the "personal skill card" system, they can timely assess and record all kinds of skills learning achievements made by individuals besides obtaining formal academic diplomas. In Britain, 1986 has established a national vocational qualification system, and the National Vocational Qualification Committee has formulated a relatively comprehensive vocational qualification system. The system is divided into 1 1 and five qualification levels, and the five qualification levels correspond to skilled workers, skilled workers, technicians, senior technicians and professionals respectively. What is more valuable is that the vocational qualification certificate can communicate with the diplomas and certificates of general education, thus greatly enhancing the attraction of continuing education to young people.
On the other hand, it is necessary to establish an authoritative and effective inspection, supervision and information feedback mechanism to promote the sustainable and coordinated development of continuing education. To this end, France has formed a systematic law enforcement and supervision institution and a judicial system to deal with educational disputes. Moreover, the French government conducts a continuing education survey every three years, grasps the needs of enterprises for continuing education, and formulates national and even regional continuing education laws and regulations by consulting regional continuing education institutions. In addition, Japan's "Lifelong Learning Review Conference" and the United States' "National Adult Education Advisory Committee" are both clearly stipulated management institutions in various countries' laws, which have played a very good role in regulating continuing education.
(5) The acceleration of modernization, integration and globalization of continuing education means requires all countries to develop continuing education on a broader stage.
Thanks to the highly developed modern electronic information technology, distance teaching with modern media and multimedia courseware as tools shows great vitality. France has established a large number of continuing education and training institutions, which are highly competitive and maintain information exchange and various links, thus making the whole training institution in an open system. In addition, countries are increasingly emphasizing the incorporation of learning information into their legislation, and trying to build a criss-crossing comprehensive implementation network to provide their citizens with various learning information services. Article 3 of Japan's Lifelong Learning Revitalization Law stipulates that the first duty of prefectures to promote lifelong learning activities is to "collect, sort out and provide information about learning opportunities and cultural activities in school education and social education".
A trend that cannot be ignored is that the international background of continuing education is changing. Continuing education is in a consistent state with international economic, political and social development, and cooperation and competition have become the important connotation of modern continuing education. Countries began to pay attention to the international stage of continuing education, and the international exchange of continuing education was strengthened and expanded day by day. Joint running of schools and mutual teaching among teachers have been widely recognized by all countries, and the international market for continuing education has been continuously opened.
Second, the enlightenment to China's continuing education legislation
(A) China has the necessity of continuing education legislation.
Compared with western countries, China lacks special continuing education laws. Up to now, a national continuing education law has not been promulgated, the existing laws and regulations can not be organically combined with the requirements of China's market economy system, and there are some uncoordinated phenomena such as duplication and conflict in the internal structure. Therefore, China, which is in the process of economic transformation, also needs to build a modern continuing education system on the track of the rule of law. Through the formulation of laws and regulations, the internal needs and necessary conditions of continuing education are changed from possible to mandatory, so as to clearly define the rights and obligations, interests and responsibilities, rewards and punishments of the government, units, individuals, educational institutions and other aspects in continuing education activities, rationally locate the relations among all aspects in continuing education, and make all aspects of continuing education form a unified, coordinated and efficient operation system.
(B) the principle of lifelong learning to guide China's continuing education legislation
With the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China taking "forming a learning society with all-people learning and lifelong learning" as one of the goals of building a well-off society in an all-round way, the demand for lifelong learning has become increasingly prominent, and governments at all levels in China, especially senior leaders, are vigorously advocating the importance of lifelong learning. Therefore, the author believes that it should be the center of continuing education legislation in China to guide the functions, objectives and measures of continuing education with the principle of lifelong learning and transform them into corresponding legislative actions.
(3) Continuing education legislation should construct socialized and market-oriented operating rules under the control of the government.
Drawing lessons from the successful experience of the organic combination of "marketization" and "state-owned" in various countries, we should also pay attention to giving full play to the advantages of trade associations and integrating social forces to promote the development of continuing education in China on the premise of clarifying the macro functions of the government. For example, we should adopt multi-channel fund-raising methods, strengthen "school-enterprise cooperation" and "integration of learning and society", explore the continuing education mode of organic combination of general education and vocational education, and explore the emphasis and compatibility of continuing education legislation with other existing education legislation, so as to closely combine continuing education with the actual needs of China's social development and make it constantly improve and develop under the control of the government and the market.
(D) Continuing education legislation needs to establish a scientific and authoritative education management system.
The existing policies and regulations of continuing education in China are neither clear nor strict, and lack of execution, let alone efficient feedback mechanism, which seriously affects the effectiveness of continuing education in China. Therefore, we should learn from the practices of western countries, establish a legal, scientific, institutionalized and networked law enforcement and feedback system for continuing education, do a solid job in identification and supervision, summarize, evaluate and feedback in time to ensure the implementation of continuing education.
(5) Continuing education legislation should open up international vision and international education market.
With China's entry into WTO, foreign continuing education and training institutions have gradually entered the China market, with more extensive cooperation and more intense market competition. Therefore, the continuing education work and legislation in the new era must have an international perspective, humbly absorb the strength of all sectors of society, and constantly improve China's continuing education in cooperation and competition with other countries. We should pay attention to the infiltration of international consciousness in legislation. For example, our continuing education has many advantages in Wushu, Chinese medicine, Chinese and Qigong. We can jointly run schools, attract foreign teachers to teach in continuing education and training institutions, and share distance education resources. Many international exchange experiences and practices can be absorbed into legal norms, so that our continuing education can flourish on a broader stage.
Author: Anhui Huangshan College
[Editor: Jiang Xue]