In this policy, priority is given to making employed adults and their employers more aware of the importance of investing in, maintaining and enhancing skills and to supporting those segments of the adult population lacking professional qualifications that would allow them to obtain basic education. Public employment services and local employment centres, like the network of adult education centres or continuing education services of educational institutions, have an important role to play in implementing this Government policy.

The policy focuses on four major interrelated approaches that define priorities for action:

• providing basic education for adults in Quebec;
• maintaining and upgrading adults' competencies (the challenge of anchoring a culture of ALT);
• acknowledging prior learning and competencies through official recognition;
• removing obstacles to access and retention.

In terms of basic education, the goal is to increase the number of Quebeckers registered in general adult education. To this end, the government has allocated new budgets that will also be used to promote adult learning, improve reception and referral services in adult education centres, encourage the development of assessment tools designed to recognize achievements and skills and establish a loan program for part-time students. The Government policy is geared specifically to people under 30 who have no qualifications, persons with disabilities, immigrants, Aboriginal people, workers 45 years of age or older, young mothers and prison inmates. It focuses on a variety of ALT agents in public institutions, workplaces, community groups and in on–line learning.

The four thrusts of the Five-Year Action Plan 2002-2007, which accompanied the Government policy, are: basic education, continuing job-related ALT, recognition of achievements and skills and sharing of responsibility for the funding of ALT. In each of these cases, specific targets are set and the goal shared by all the actions is similar, namely to promote demand for ALT, to welcome, advise and support adults through the process, to provide them with services geared to their situation and to work in co–operation with and to complement the partners involved.

Consultations are currently underway to prepare an assessment summarizing the implementation of the Action Plan 2002-2007 and to determine the priorities to be adopted in preparing the Action Plan 2008-2013.