Comparative Education

Volume 32 No. 2 1996 pp. 233 244

Continuing Education in a Late-modern or Global Society: towards a theoretical framework for comparative analysis
PETER JARVIS
Continuing education, those forms of education that occur after initial education, is exposed to the global market forces in a twofold manner which is foreign to traditional education: rstly, it has to relate to the changing structures and demands of the workforce in the global market and, secondly, it is a marketable commodity in itself. This means that there are no simple systems of continuing education that can be compared between nations or even between occupational categories. This paper, therefore, endeavours to provide a taxonomy which might underlie comparative theorising about continuing education.
ABSTR ACT

Introduction
While there is a debate in W estern Europe and the USA about post-modern society, other societies in the world, such as M alaysia, Indonesia, etc., are in the throes of modernisin g and so any discussion about continuin g education and post-modernity has to recognise that continuin g education is as much a feature of m odernisin g societies as it is of those which may be entering a phase of post-modernity or, perhaps more accurately, late modernity . The concept of late modernity, rather than post-modernity , will be em ployed through out this paper in order to relate the modernisin g process to the central features of the contem porary world global markets, transnational companies and the rapid changes in inform ation technology and international travel all of which have aided the realignm ent of space and time. The thesis of this paper is that continuin g educatio n is a product of the prime forces of globalisation the econom ic and technological forces generated in advanced capitalist countries by transnational companies in the further development of a global market. M any of the form s of continuin g education are direct responses to the demands thus generated although some aspects are constrain ed by the fact that cultural knowledge changes less rapidly than scienti c and technological knowledge. In order to understand continuin g education from a comparative perspective, therefore, it has to be contextu alised. The social forces which have generated its development from both adult education, on the one hand and initial education, on the other, have to be understood. It is necessary, in the rst instance, to explore the underlyin g ideas of globalisation and post-modernism , which will be followed by an examination of the changes in the nature of work and know ledge that have been created in contem porary society. Continuing education will then be discussed and it will be suggested
Correspo ndence to: Peter Jarvis, Departm ent of Educational Studies, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH, UK. 0305 0068/96/020233-12 $6.00 1996 Carfax Publishin g Ltd

234

P. Jarvis

that while some aspects of its substance might be similar througho ut the world, the method of its presentation is still constrained by cultural variables. Finally, a theoretic al framework for comparison will be presented.

Globalisation and Late Modernity

It is generally accepted that late or post-modernity is a feature of Western European culture in which the consequences of the Enlightenment are questioned. The fact that it is by and large a W estern phenomenon is important to this debate since it could be argued that its emergence in the W est is a product of the classical market forces which were enabled to operate from the time when the free movement of capital between countries was allowed, since this generated condition s closer to a universal free market. Before that time, it could be claimed that the world was developing along regional lines and the follow ing paragraphs outline a simple theory of this change. Basically, the theory of regional development means that a region s employment structure will be enhanced through the investment of capital in the area and, as a result of the multiplier effect, this will generate even more wealth throughout the region. Consequently, regions where capital exists get rich er in contrast to those regions where there is less capital to invest. For as long, therefore, as there is not a free ow of capital between countries , those countries with wealth have more capital to invest and generate m ore employment opportu nities, so that the West got richer at the expense of the remainder of the world. This also meant that these countries were able to tax the large and successful companies and so generate suf cient wealth to create and sustain a welfare state, which also enabled the further grow th of adult educatio n on a leisure-time basis. The fact that each state had boundaries meant that there was only a limited workforce for companies to employ and now here else for companies to invest their wealth, which enabled the trades unions to gain considera ble power on behalf of the working classes. However, as the barriers between countrie s were lowered in respect of the transfer of capital, the condition s of the classical market began to emerge on a worldw ide scale. Large companies seeking pro t were no longer constrained by the restrictive practices of the trades unions or the high taxation of the welfare state. They were able to seek more pro table places in which to invest their capital, which they did. Some less-developed countries with cheaper and more malleable labour forces became the focus of capital investment, although there were still many countries that were a bad risk or in which capitalist companies were unable to invest capital, for example the Eastern bloc and China. Classical econom ists would argue that until such time as there is an equilibrium in locations, companies will invest in the most pro table locations and so there will be a gradual enrichm ent of poorer countries at the expense of the more wealthy ones. The poorer countries have, consequently, embarked on the process of modernisa tion while the more wealthy and less competitive ones faced a period when they could no longer take their wealth or incom e for granted and appeared to stagnate; in other words, they entered a new phase of modernity late modernity. Some First World countries , such as Germany, with reform ed labour relations and new industria l investment, have still been able to compete relatively successfully in the market while other countries with practices embedded in the past and outm oded production techniques have faced a more dif cult period. As a result, there has been a gradual change. The taken-for-granted values in the m odern society of West Europe, values that had emerged in part as a result of the Enlightenm ent, were now open to question, including the restructu ring of the welfare state. Naturally, the above paragraphs are an oversim pli cation of the globalisation process which had been going on long before the free movement of capital through colonial

Continuing Education in a Late-modern or Global Society

235

im perialism . Since some transnational companies divide their production processes across a variety of countries , introduci ng an international division of labour, they have also lessened the signi cance of national econom ies and the state and have emphasised the globalisation process even more. Among the theorists who have endeavoured to explain globalisation in econom ic terms is W allerstein (1990), whose theory contains six elem ents: capitalism is worldw ide; it has always sought wider m arkets which has created the contradiction between modernisa tion and Westernisation; the problem of getting workers to work harder for lower pay is an inherently dif cult one; modernisa tion as a central universalising theme gives priority to newness and change; the capitalist world econom y does not merely reward unequally, it is the locus of increasin g polarity over historical time; and the strongest and wealthiest states have risen and declined. Most of his points are apparent in the above argument, although they are not all accepted here uncritica lly; for instance, his nal point implies that history always repeats itself, which is not logically correct. It is also signi cant that Robertson (1992, p. 13) criticised him for being too one-sided and concent rating too much on the forces of econom ics and so it is intended to try to avoid this error in the follow ing argum ent by recognis ing that inform ation technology and the traditions of culture have also played signi cant parts in these changes and also in the way that continuin g education has developed. Nevertheless, it is im portant to recognise that it is hardly possible to understand the development of continuin g education in the contem porary world without reference to the globalisation process. During the period in which the West was modernisin g and achieving dom inance (the West and the rest), those cultural values which it had adopted during the Enlightenm ent were assumed to be the apex of civilisation and they were not only taken for granted but were often exported around the world both by the mechanisms of colonialis m and, more latterly, through educatio n even university extension (Steele, 1994, inter alia). Hamilton (1992, pp. 21 22) summarised these cultural values as follow s: reason and rationality, empiricism , science, universalism, progress, individua lism, toleratio n, freedom , uniform ity of human nature and secularism. However, as other parts of the world modernise d and the dom inance of the West appeared more fragile even though many of the transnational companies are still controlled from the W est som e of these values were called into question. Late or postmodernity had apparently arrived in the West! A num ber of scholars then began to write about this new era (Lyotard, 1984; Harvey, 1989; Jameson, 1991; Bauman, 1992, inter alia ). Whether it actually was a new era has certainly been a major feature in the debate with many scholars, notably Habermas (1987), denying that modernity is over. It is because of this debate, that the term `late modernity rather than post-m odernity is adopted here, for clearly the values of late capitalism still dom inate Western society with some having become more prevalent and others having taken new form , even though some of them have been questioned by post-m odern scholars.

Work in Global Society

Education and certainly continuin g education, has nearly always been related to occupation, the structure of which has been greatly affected by these changes in the global econom y, including the fact that since technological knowledge is changing at such a rapid rate it is less likely that people will remain in the same job all their lives without updating. Furtherm ore, many will have to change their occupation and learn new skills. Reich (1991, pp. 171 184) suggested that there will be three main types of work in the future: routine productio n services, in-person services and symbolic analysts. In addition, he noted that there will remain a few who work in the primary industries, such as farming and mining and others who are

236

P. Jarvis

governm ent employees sheltered from global competition although m any of these are actually less sheltered from global competition than he implied. Finally, there are the unem ployed and the retired. Each of these categories is now very brie y exam ined and the follow ing paragraphs will follow Reich (1991) quite closely. The routine productio n workers are both the blue- and white-collar workers who perform simple sequential steps in production whether manual or supervisory or data processing and they need literacy, core skills and the ability to perform simple computations but they must be reliable, loyal, hard working and malleable. In 1990, approximately 25% of the American workforce fell into this category. These generic occupations can be perform ed anywhere within the glob al company so that they are frequently undertak en in countries where the costs to the company are cheapest. In-person services are those undertaken on a person-to-person basis, so that they cannot be sold worldw ide. They require the same qualities as the routine productio n workers but they also demand a pleasant demeanour so that they make those whom they serve feel good. Som e 30% of the American workforce were employed in this manner in 1990. Symbolic analysts comprised 20% of the workforce in 1990, but this percentage has been rising rapidly over the past quarter century. They identify, solve and broker prob lems, they often work in small team s and their work is knowledge based and worldw ide. M uch of the initial preparation for this category of occupation comes through high calibre university educatio n, mostly provided by Western universities and it is in Western societies where this type of occupation nds its place, although m any of the symbolic analysts have glob al missions and work for the transnational companies. The primary occup ations are also undergoin g changes with the introduct ion of new technologies and there are substantially more people unem ployed for a variety of reasons which include structural, frictiona l and demographic ones. There are also many more unem ployed because of the short-term nature of many jobs. Additionally, more people are retired since many people are stopping work earlier and living longer. Naturally, the employment structures will be considera bly different between countries , with the percentage gures given for the USA having no relations hip to those of less-developed countries . These latter countries have more workers in primary and service industrie s and far fewer symbolic analysts, although many from these countries send students to the West in order to gain the type of educatio n that will enable them to enter this form of employm ent. Since education, particularly continuin g educatio n, has always been very closely related to employment Kerr et al. (1973, p. 47) suggested that education is the handmaiden of employm ent it is clear that its nature and structure worldwid e is going to be affected by these processes. Underlying them, however, is the way that the nature of knowledge itself has undergon e transformation and so before discussing continuing educatio n per se it is now necessary to exam ine knowledge and inform ation transfer.

Knowledge and Information Transfer

M odern form ulations of knowledge owe a great deal to the period of the Enlightenment in Western Europe; knowledge has been regarded as an objective phenomenon which could be tested through logic, empiricism or pragmatism. This re ects the values of the Enlightenment which were mentioned above. However, the rapid changes in contem porary society are causing the reconcep tualisation of knowledge by post-modern theorists. Four of the major changes are discussed in this section. Know ledge is now regarded as relative, its rational basis has changed, its modes of transm ission have altered and it has become a marketable commodity.

Continuing Education in a Late-modern or Global Society The Relativity of Knowledge

237

When Lyotard (1984) wrote The Post-modern Condition he claimed that all knowledge had become narrative, but later he (Lyotard, 1992, p. 31) recognis ed that he had overem phasised his position and he now thinks that different form s of knowledge have to be recognis ed, even though he still considers some form s of scienti c knowledge to be narrative. The point about a great deal of narrative is that it re ects the dom inant theories of the day and, as is now widely recognis ed, the prevailing received knowledge does appear to change with great rapidity: as early as 1926 Scheler (1980, p. 76) considere d that positive knowledge was changing hour by hour and that technological knowledge changed even more rapidly. Advances in scienti c research do modify prevailing theories and this has also come to be rather taken for granted: new discoveries reveal more about phenom ena than was previously known and new technological advances mean that what was impossible a year or two ago now becomes possible and tomorrow becomes the everyday. Scienti c knowledge, therefore , has becom e recognis ed as relative and its validity can always be questioned and other evidence produced to refute or recast a current theory, but it is necessary that those in the knowledge-based occupations keep abreast with these rapid changes in their areas of specialism. However, academics who previously legislated on what was correct knowledge have now become interp reters of a world of new knowledge (Bauman, 1992) and, perhaps, legitim ators of learning. Other discip lines, such as the social sciences, have tried to be scienti c in their approach and, as they have approxim ated to the scienti c, they have discovered that there are myths about the claim s about the nature of scienti c knowledge. Indeed, it is perhaps signi cant that the terms `learning and `inform ation are som etimes preferred to `knowledge since the latter term implies a nitude or an end-prod uct, while the form er ones suggest that that which is know n is only partial and that the progress of discovery is incom plete. In the light of all these recent changes, it might be argued that there is surely a sense of optimism about the progress that is being achieved, but this is also far from the truth, for, as Fukuyama (1992, p. 4) suggested, the `pessimism of the twentieth century stands in sharp contrast to the optimism of the previous one ; perhaps humankind has lost its way and its con dence where is history going and why should new know ledge be produce d if it is only relative? This is a Western cultural perception in which old questions are being asked anew, the m odernisin g phase of capitalism has now passed and those taken-for-grante d values questioned.

The Rational Basis of Knowledge

The birth of modernity brought with it an increasing emphasis on empiricism . The tradition al narratives about the world were being destroyed by the scienti c discoveries and rational arguments of the age. The then new universities grew up in this age of m odernity, often with the express intention of disseminating this new scienti c knowledge to an eager population the history of adult education is littered with mechanics and scienti c institutes, literary institutes and stories of many hundred s of people coming to lectures to hear about recent scienti c discoveries. Knowledge was regarded as empirically true and, therefore, valid. Empiricism was regarded as the basis of a great deal of this new knowledge and those who discovered it were the legislators of what was correct. But now the basis of knowledge is changing. Increasingly it is becoming apparent that many statements about society are ideological rather than empirical and claims about it seen to be discourse rather than factual. These may still be rm ly based in reason although they are less possible to substantiate. Indeed, there has also been an increase in narratives about

238

P. Jarvis

what society should be like, rather than what it is more ethical studies and even a return to Utopian studies (for example, Kumar, 1987; Levitas, 1990). In a sense, this is a response to the pessimism that Fukuyama (1992) described. Yet young people increasin gly opt to study the humanities and social sciences a symbol about life, to which education can only respond in part because of the strident demands of the complex commercial and technological infrastructural system, reinforced by the state, which is merely echoing its master. But there is another basis to knowledge that is now being accepted and this is clearly describ ed by Lyotard (1984, p. 48), who argued that knowledge is now only socially legitim ated by the criterion of the perform ability in the social system, so that skilled experts have to be produced since, The transmission of knowledge is no longer destined to train an elite capable of guiding the nation towards its emancipation, but to supply the system with players capable of acceptably ful lling their roles at the pragm atic posts required by the institution. (p. 48) He went on to argue that once knowledge ceases to be an end in itself its transmission is no longer the exclusive responsibility of scholars and students. Know ledge is now based on pragmatism. This is not the place to explore the philosophy of pragm atism, but it might be claimed now that knowledge is legitim ated by its utility, but so is skill evaluated by the same criterion. If something works, then it can be transmitted to others, so that for those who are in service and other practical-type occupations, this practical knowledge form s the basis of a great deal of their professional preparation and continuing education (Jarvis, 1994). However, the issue is perhaps deeper than this since universities are being urged to seek research funding from industry and commerce the knowledge being produce d is based on its perceived utility. Once produced , it needs to be transmitted to those who need it, so that continuin g educatio n has become a feature in the changing role of universities in this new world. Educational institutio ns are also being increasingly asked to conduct an impact evaluation on what they are teaching, that is the perform ance outcom e in the organisation from which the students com e. To a great extent, the validity of continuin g education is pragmatic since its value depends on its impact on society. Signi cantly, with this rapidly changing knowledge base one form of pragmatic knowledge was neglected: the wisdom of the elders. Old age has been regarded as obsolescent but perhaps this is also changing because of the demographics of contem porary society.

Transmission of Knowledge
At the birth of modernity , there were basically two modes of knowledge transmission, spoken and written and the universities were undertaking both. The lecture theatre was the locus for the transmission of learning and the publishing houses, with such illustriou s names as Oxford and Cambridge, being the other major mode of knowledge transmission. W hen wireless became the third major mode, the educational institutio ns were notably absent, as they were at the birth of television. Eventually, with the birth of the Open University in the UK, the universities tried to reclaim a place in the modern mode of knowledge transmission. Clearly, the Open University was a great success and its knowledge production is of a Fordist nature mass production for a mass market, with some courses prepared for 100,000 students. Signi cantly, questions are now being raised about post-Fordist methods of production and perhaps there is a place here for modern educational institutions in this late modern world of learning . Yet the world has moved on since 1970, now there are institutions like the Fielding Institute in America that does not used printed m aterials at all the electronic university is

Continuing Education in a Late-modern or Global Society

239

a reality. But the electronic university is but one stage in this transform ation now there are Internet, satellite, cable and disc and this is not just one-way transmission and the possibilities of interactive media are not far away. Indeed, some commercial companies are already producin g interactive video compact discs, so that know ledge can be taught and learned interactively and cable has even more potential. The research and developm ent costs of these developm ents have been considerable, so that it could hardly be expected that a single university could produce such m aterial. Space and time have been realigned !

Knowledge Has Become a Marketable Commodity

Know ledge, then, can now be packaged and marketed globally. It might not now be called `teaching learning packages or learning materials are now familiar names. This is a knowledge-led society and inform ation has becom e a commodity that can be sold, like any other. However, it is even more im portant than many of the products on the market. Lyotard (1984) wrote Know ledge in the form of an inform ational com modity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major perhaps the major stake in the worldw ide competition for power. It is conceivable that nation-states will one day ght for control of inform ation, just as they battled in the past for control over territory (p. 5) Industrial espionage is a reality and educatio nal institutions which purvey knowledge are now part of a large complex scene in which they are rarely the largest or the most important players. Indeed, the multinational companies that are able to invest millions of dollars in the research and production of these means of transmitting knowledge are also able to invest the same amount of capital in the research and development of knowledge itself. They are able to produce their own learning materials and market them to whosoever will purchase. Educational institutions still, to a large extent, rely on local and instantaneous transmission of knowledge that is the learners have to be present when the lecture is delivered although they are slowly moving to other form s of open and distance learning , but the new market has both space time distanciation and space time com pression: knowledge can be transmitted and learned not at the teachers convenie nce but at the learners and this can be done worldwide and instantaneously since the m arket is now glob al. Having analysed the changing nature of knowledge from a perspective that has been adopted by post-modernist scholars, it is necessary to look at how educatio n is itself changing as a result and then to examine the nature of continuin g education.

Continuing Education
Know ledge, then, is an important, relative commodity that is being marketed, quite impersonally, by many different organisations worldw ide. Its basis has changed and become more pragmatic. However, some people do not like the impersonal approaches to learning and are deliberately opting for more personal ones, even though they cost more money to produce and to market perhaps this will become a feature of post-Fordism in the production and marketing of knowledge. However, the potential now exists for inform ation to be easily acquired from anywhere in the world through the new technolo gical innovations and the nancial potential of retailing such learning packages is becoming more fully recognise d. It has been intim ated above that these changes are forcing m ajor changes on the educational system; indeed, the nature of educatio n has itself undergo ne something of a metamorphosis in the West in recent years, as the cognitive bias favoured by philosophers like Peters (1967)

240

P. Jarvis

have been supplemented by the more skill-based approaches dem anded by production and service types of em ployment (see Pring, 1993). More signi cantly for the purposes of this paper, education has now become lifelong and even lifewide, and an element in that is continuin g education. Universities and colleges are slowly adjusting to these changes and a major question remains as to whether they will adjust suf ciently quickly to respond to the im mediate demands of the different categories of people and their continuin g learning needs or whether they will remain sheltered from the demands of the global market by the nancial support accorded them by their national governm ents. (It must be recognise d that this neither asks nor seeks to answer the question implicit in this statement as to whether it is right for education that the governm ent should protect it from the demands of the global market.) `Continuing educatio n is a term which refers to post-initial education and it has assumed a dom inant place within education because it refers to both vocational and non-vocational educatio n. Indeed, some of the so-called professions have introduce d the term `continuin g professional education (see Cervero, 1988) although Houle (1980) referred to this as `continuin g learning . However, this idea will not be pursued here since the concept of profession is problem atic. Instead, Reich s (1991) analysis, referred to above, will form part of the basis of a taxonom y which creates a basis for comparative analysis. In the 1970s the idea of `recurrent educatio n was also prevalent, and the term is still occasionally used in som e national literature although, re ecting the ethos of the 1970s in Western Europe, it containe d an ideology of educational rights which have disappeared with the welfare state; however, `continuin g education does not have these ideologic al underton es and so while it is concep tually less precise it has gained dom inance because it appears politically more neutral. The concep t of continuin g educatio n has also begun to replace that of adult educatio n in some countries since `adult education has connotations of adult literacy and liberal adult education the latter idea being strictly non-vocational has begun to appear to some governments as a luxury which they no longer wish to afford or shelter from market pressures. However, the term is still retained in other countries , particularly those where adult literacy remains an im portant element of continuin g education which also re ects the learning needs of some workers in the service occupations.

Towards a Theoretical Framework

It will have become clear from the above analysis that certain form s of continuin g educatio n are more exposed to the global market than are initial and other form s of educatio n. They are also more exposed to the different demands of occupations which, in turn, re ect the respective levels of developm ent of different countries, whether they are pre-modern, early modern or late modern, etc. In most pre-modern countries the term adult education might still be more prevalent than continuin g educatio n but for the purposes of this analysis the pre-modern societies are not really discussed, although literacy is also a major educational issue in these countrie s as it is throughout the whole world, so that different form s of literacy provision constitute a major area for comparative analysis. However, ve main theoretical dimensions are highlighted here as a tentative framework within which com parative analysis might be conducted in the future: the nature of the clientele , the nature of the quali cation, the nature of the providers , the nature of the provision and the method of presentation.

The Structure of the Clientele and the Learners

Traditiona lly, the students have been regarded as the clientele of educatio n, but now the clients may be the employers since they may be paying the fees or releasing staff to study,

Continuing Education in a Late-modern or Global Society

241

although students will also be expected to pay for their own vocational continuin g educatio n in many instances. This also highlights a signi cant point about continuin g educatio n responding to the learning needs of its potential students now it is also responding to the demands of the wider market, which also re ects the structure of the country s workforce and the level to which it has modernised. Retired people, who are an increasingly large proportion of the population of many advanced capitalist countries , have less need of vocationally based education or of awards and so they are less likely to be willing to pay the market rate for and become clients of form al educational provision . Consequently, non-form al leisure time educatio n for the elderly is also growing and it re ects many of the elements of traditional adult education. This type of continuing education remains rare in less-developed countries since it can only occur where there is an educated body of senior citizens who are able to organise their own leisure time learning.

The Nature of the Quali cation

In modern and late-modern societies Reich s (1991) structure of the workforce is becoming more clearly demarcated and this provides one dim ension for comparative purposes, since different countries will have different structure s and different continuin g educatio n demands. Both the content of the educational provision and the types of quali cation being awarded are im portant factors here. For instance, those in the symbolic analyst occupations often require advanced levels of form al knowledge and are required to keep abreast with developm ents in their eld. This has resulted in the undergra duate degree becom ing only one stage in the process of occup ational quali cation with, often, the taught masters degree and even the practitioner doctorate being required as necessary stages to professional recognitio n both of which re ect the pragmatic nature of contem porary society. Other practitioners undertake these courses of study to demonstrate that they are up-to-date with the latest knowledge. These higher degrees are often acquired whilst the workers are doing the job they are taught part-time and contain a large practical component which form s the basis for experiential and re ective learning . (See Jarvis (1992, 1995), inter alia for modern develop ments on learning theory.) Hence, the demand for continuing educatio n has generated considerable growth in higher degree courses in universities, with more rst degree courses being taught by lower level institutio ns which, in its turn, has blurred the boundaries between tradition ally different types of education. By contrast, those in the service occupations require literacy, computer literacy and personal and occupational skills to undertake their employment. Unless the workers are in a supervisory capacity they will not need advanced quali cations, although they will all need some form of quali cation since their jobs will probably not be lifelong and they have to be able to dem onstrate to potential new employers what competencies they have gained in previous occupations. The same types of argument apply for those who are unem ployed. Courses are offered which prepare the unem ployed for work and offer them quali cations through which they can demonstrate to prospective employers their levels of competence. As continuin g educatio n has begun to embrace the cognitive and the skills dom ains, it is not surprising that the nature of educational quali cations themselves has begun to change not only are higher degrees awarded that contain a great deal of practical work but quali cations are also awarded for practical skills, such as national vocational quali cations in the UK. There is, therefore, a blurring of the boundarie s between vocational and non-vocational awards. However, as continuing education is now a marketable commodity the quali cations serve other purposes. M arkets are also about selling signs and brand names, so that there has been an upgrading of institutio ns of higher educatio n to university status in

242

P. Jarvis

a num ber of advanced capitalist countries and courses are advertised by their quali cation. Education has become a commodity to be consum ed, something which Baudrilla rd (cited from Poster, 1988) has highlighted: Consum ption is the virtual totality of all objects and messages presently constituted in a more or less coherent discourse . Consum ption, in so far as it is meaningful, is a systematic act of manipulation of signs. (p. 22) Baudrilla rd (Poster, 1988) has argued that for phenom ena to becom e objects of consum ption, they must become signs. The sign is the currency of legitim ation and the educational signs are legitim ators of learning . It is at this point that the educatio nal system currently has a great advantage over other purveyors of learning materials it has the established and widely recognis ed system of signs: educational quali cations. Quali cations are the currency for the job market. As knowledge changes new quali cations are required and old ones become outdated, a new phenom enon is emerging quali cation in ation. At present educational institutions hold something of a monopoly in awarding quali cations but there are already com mercial organisations which do the same. Eurich (1985) recorded that, A new develop ment on the scene of business and education is the growing num ber of corporate colleges, institutes, or universities that grant their own degrees. It is the Rand PhD, the Wang or the Arthur D . Little M aster of Science degree. No longer the purview of educatio nal institutions alone, accredited academic degrees are being awarded increasin gly by companies and industries that have created their own separate institutions and successfully passed the same educatio nal hurdles used to accredit tradition al higher educatio n. (p. 85) It might be claimed, therefore , that if universities are becoming businesses and marketing their commodities, there is little to stop businesses becom ing universities and doing the same thing. It is signi cant, however, that in some advanced countries, such as Japan (see M asatoshi et al. , 1994), where work is traditionally lifelong and the job market is not well developed, there is less need to have evidence of knowledge or skills to show prospective em ployers, so that there are fewer continuin g educatio n quali cations.

The Nature of the Providers

Commercial organisations have traditionally provided their own in-service continuin g education but it was rarely for quali cation; they have also frequently released staff on paid educational leave, so that they could attend educational institutio ns and gain further quali cations. Addition ally occupational group s, such as legal associations and the trades unions concerne d with such things as health and safety at work, have also run their own continuin g educational courses. N ow company provision is increasing (see Cassner-Lotto et al., 1988) and becoming extrem ely sophisticated. Now continuing educatio n is award bearing and there are more and different form s of provision : some made by educatio nal institutio ns, some made by industria l and commercial companies themselves, some made by trades unions and professional associations and some made by large private educational and training consultancies. In addition , much continuin g education is offered through a mixture of providers, partnerships being something that industria l trainers regard as quite norm al (Carnivale et al. , 1990). Distinguishing the providers in this way re ects the changes that are occurring in education and Apps (1989, pp. 279 281) suggested a provider framework of four types: fully

Continuing Education in a Late-modern or Global Society

243

or partly supported from taxes, non-p ro t organisations, for-pro t providers and nonorganised learning opportun ities a signi cant one with the developm ent of learning opportunities through modern technolo gical developments. He showed how this classi cation is valid in the USA and recognis es that there is a blurring of the boundaries between educational provision in a variety of different ways.

The Mode of Provision

Not only are the types of provider changing, but the mode of provision is also changing since inform ation technolo gy has generated a realignm ent of space and time. Traditiona lly, education has been delivered at the point where space and time intersect, space time instanciation and students have usually attended the educational institution or the learning centre. However, with space time distanciation (Giddens, 1990) learning opportun ities can be provided at a distance through such methods as corresp ondence education and interactive compact disc and with space time compression (Harvey, 1989) it can be provided through electronic communicatio ns, satellite television, etc. Consequently, the providers have no longer to be in the place where or at the time when the learning occurs. Continuing educatio n can be provided wherever there is a learning demand and transnational com panies are very aware of their own continuing educatio n demands worldwide. However, education is a marketable commodity and continuin g education providers are becoming increasin gly aware of the nature of the global market. Large providers of continuing education are now marketing their educatio nal wares througho ut the world. Sometimes they provide local more traditiona l educational opportu nities and on other occasions they are providin g learning opportun ities at a distance. Successful large providers are, conseq uently, able to compete with local providers of continuin g education since many of the learning needs will be similar because of the increasin gly sim ilar types of work that are occurring throughout the world. Indeed, global educational establishments can inhibit the grow th of local continuin g educatio n provision . At the same time local systems of continuin g educatio n will continue to exist, national professional associations will still run courses for members of their professions, local universities and colleges still work with local industry and commerce and local industry will organise its own in-service courses, etc. The way that different local providers offer their courses in a post-Fordist manner, designing their courses for speci c nich e markets, will re ect some of the local demands and speci c needs, which may also re ect the degree of modernisa tion that a society has achieved.

The Method of Presentation

Despite the fact that globalisation is occurring in many ways, national cultures and characteristics are not being destroyed. Not all educational provision can, therefore, use the same teaching methods or assumptions. For instance, some continuin g education in Western Europe is both experiential and affective and experientialism is itself a sign of late-m odern society but displays of em otion and the revealing of inner though ts are contrary to many Eastern cultural practices. Gender roles differ between countries , etc., which will call for certain ethical decision s by providers and teachers in those situations where educational provision has globalised. Teaching and learning are still cultural phenomena and teaching methods must vary according to the cultural demands of the clientele, since the clients can easily change their providers in the global m arket of learning if they are unhappy with any aspect of the education that they are offered.

244

P. Jarvis

Conclusions
This paper has demonstrated the fact that continuin g education is both an adjunct to and a product of the capitalist system which has led to modernisa tion of the world. It has endeavoured to contextu alise continuing education in both a global and late-modern frame of referenc e. In so doing it has begun to provide a taxonom y within which different systems and form s of continuin g education can be com pared and contrasted, although it has to be recognis ed that such a taxonom y requires more rigorous analysis than has been undertaken here. Of necessity the article is tentative in nature since continuin g educatio n is rarely an established system. It is much more ephemeral in nature than initial educatio n, changing with a variety of social pressures and emerging and disappearing in different parts of the world as the dem ands of the global market change with perhaps those form s of continuin g educatio n which lie beyond or are sheltered from market pressures changing less rapidly.
REFERENC ES A PPS , J. (1989) Providers of adult and continuing education, a fram ework, in: S. M ERRIAM & P. C UNNING HAM (Eds) Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education, pp. 275 286 (San Francisco, Jossey Bass). B AUM AN , Z. (1992) Intimations of Postmodernity (London, Routledge). C ARNIVAL E , A ., G AINER , L. & V ILLET , J. (1990) Training in America (San Francisco, Jossey Bass). C ASSNER -L OTTO , J. & A SSOCIATES (1988) Successful Training Strategies (San Francisco, Jossey Bass). C ERVERO , R. (1988) Effective Continuing Education for Professionals (San Francisco, Jossey Bass). E URICH , N. (1985) Corporate Classrooms (Princeton, The Carnegie Foundation for the A dvancement of Teaching). F U KU YAM A , F. (1992) The End of History and the Last Man (London, H amish H amilton). G IDDENS , A . (1990) The Consequences of Modernity (Cambridge, Polity). H ABERMAS , J. (1987) The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (C ambridge, Polity). H AM ILTON , P. (1992) The enlightenment and the birth of social science, in: S. H ALL & B. G IEBEN (Eds) Formations of Modernity (Cambridge, Polity in association with the Open University). H ARVEY , D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford, Blackwell). H OU LE, C. (1980) Continuing Learning in the Professions (San Francisco, Jossey Bass). J AMESON, F. (1991) Postmodernism (London, Verso). J ARVIS, P. (1992) Paradoxes of Learning (San Francisco, Jossey Bass). J ARVIS, P. (1994) Learning practical knowledge, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 18(1), pp. 31 43. J ARVIS, P. (1995) Adult and Continuing Education: theory and practice, 2nd edn (London, Routledge). K ERR , C., D UNLOP, J., H ARBISON , F. & M YERS , C. (1973) Industrialism and Industrial Man, 2nd edn (H arm ondsworth, Penguin). K UM AR , K. (1987) Utopia and Anti-Utopia (O xford, Blackwell). L EVITAS , R. (1990) The Concept of Utopia (London, Philip A llan). L YOTARD , J.-F. (1984) The Post-modern Condition (M anchester, Manchester University Press). L YOTARD , J.-F. (1992) The Post-modern Explained to Children (London, Turnaround). M ASATOSHI , N., K OJI, K. & H IROSHI, S. (Eds) (1994) The State of Continuing Education in Japan (Nihon, University, Research Institute of Educational Systems). P ETERS, R. (1967) The Concept of Education (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul). P OSTER , M. (1988) (Ed.) Jean Baudrillard: Selected W ritings (Cambridge, Polity Press). P RING , R. (1993) L iberal education and vocational preparation, in: R . B ARROW & P. W HITE (Eds) Beyond Liberal Education (London, Routledge). R EICH , R. (1991) The Work of Nations (London, Sim on & Schuster). R OBERTSON , R . (1992) Globalisation (London, Sage). S CHELER , M. (1980) Problems of a Sociology of Knowledge (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul). S TEELE , T. (1994) The colonial metaphor and the mission of Englishness: adult education and the origins of English studies, in: S. M ARRIOT & B. H AKE (Eds) Cultural and Intercultural Experiences in European Adult Education , pp. 70 91 (U niversity of Leeds, Leeds Studies in Continuing E ducation). W ALLERSTEIN , I. (1990) C ulture as the ideological battleground of the modern world system, Theory, Culture and Society , 7, pp. 31 55.