Lifelong Learning: Master Education - Personal Development or/and Professional Competence Development?

Master education for adults has become a strategy for Lifelong Learning among many well-educated people in Denmark. This type of master education is part of the ‘parallel education system' in Denmark. As one of the first Danish universities who offered this type of Master education, Aalborg University has during the last 9 years made it possible for adults from public and private organizations to go through continued academic education.

This paper presents some of the results of a research project investigating the adult students' motives and needs for participating in a master education and obtaining a master degree. The research interest was to determine whether the motives and needs would stem from for instance society's increased demands for qualifications, job related expectations of competence development expressed from the work place, or rather the individual wishes for personal development and shift in career.  Furthermore, the research project investigates how the individual master graduate has made use of his/her education during the period from their graduation until the time of the survey. This means investigating their career path after having graduated and investigating the intended as well as the unintended effects (personal and professional) of the master education. The data have been gathered among graduates from a specific master education, Master in Learning Processes, and the paper will draw on results from a quantitative survey based on a questionnaire answered by 120 graduates who attended the master programme from 2000 to 2007.