To carry out tasks within the scope and competence of the Ministry, an internal organizational unit, the Directorate for Lifelong Learning, was newly established with Directions for Lifelong education and the National Qualifications Framework. The following tasks are carried out: planning, monitoring and analyzing the situation in the field of adult education and lifelong learning; participation in proposing measures to improve and develop the situation in the field of adult education; monitoring regulations in this area and their implementation; preparation of systemic and methodological documents in the field of adult education; preparation of strategies in this area. In the Directorate for Lifelong Learning, the following tasks are carried out: planning, monitoring and analyzing the situation in the field of adult education and lifelong learning, while proposing measures to improve and develop the situation (regulations, standards, education, training programs, etc.).

The leading principle of the Strategy for Adult Education in Montenegro 2015-2025 refers to creating an environment for involving citizens in the lifelong learning process with a view to developing a competitive market economy, reducing unemployment and social exclusion. The focus on lifelong learning should allow for creating conditions for mobility and competitiveness in the European integration process.

The Strategy elaborates on the principles laid down by the Law on Adult Education and provides guidelines that Montenegro aspires to in the field of adult education. One of the basic principles which adult education is based on is the principle of lifelong learning. By adopting the Strategy for Adult Education, the country encourages the development of learning culture in order to improve and increase human capital that will strongly contribute to the development of the economy, reduction of unemployment, development of civil society and improvement of the quality of its citizens’ personal lives.

The priority goals identified in the Strategy are to:

• Increase the social inclusion of adult citizens through activities of lifelong learning and education

• Improve knowledge, skills and competences of adults for employability, labour market mobility and competitiveness

• Increase competences of employee in order to achieve faster economic growth

• Establish quality assurance system in adult education

• Ensure flexible and sustainable adult education system.

Adult education is carried out through formal education, non-formal, informal and self-directed learning.

One of the objectives of the Strategy for Development of Higher Education 2024-2027 is lifelong learning development. The road to achieving this objective implies the implementation of the following measures: 

• institutions affirm and continuously develop programs for the needs of individuals, the labor market and society, such as a rationalized education system that follows dynamic socio-economic changes and modern development of all activities;

• the organization of such programs integrates modern IT forms of teaching and learning and thus provides easier access teaching content (possibility of learning and mastering the content in the most favorable terms);

• university education, included in the Millennium Development Goals of the UN until 2030, in addition to lifelong learning, implies inclusiveness and equal access to quality education. 

Adults may, for the purpose of acquiring a national vocational qualification and key skills, test or demonstrate knowledge, skills and competences, regardless of how they are acquired. Educational programmes and programmes of education are developed on a modular basis with qualification units and learning units that are credit rated, which provides for linking them to other programmes, as well as the possibility of their recognition.