Education quality assurance in the context of lifelong learning

the article is dedicated to the issues of education quality assurance taking into account specific features of interaction between subjects of learning within a local social and economic environment and the role that they play in this process. Relying on the analysis of modern international documents and conference proceedings devoted to lifelong learning, the author summarizes current trends in lifelong learning system development aimed at ensuring the quality of life in general. In particular, the author notes that personal importance of formal education for learners decreases, while the role of non-formal (informal) educational institutions increases. The article considers the indicators of education quality that aimed at implementing educational goals and managing educational systems. The article presents a structural and functional model of the quality assurance in lifelong education at the local level of socio-economic environment. The author provides the data obtained from the survey among students (future economists) on the impact various factors have on the quality of their higher education. In addition to that, the author presents the results of the research studying how senior high school students and second-, third-year students understand education quality over time in terms of building and formation of professionally important competencies. The author concludes that education quality assurance is directly focused on the goal achievement of students and their parents as subjects of local socio-economic environment. Furthermore, the paper shows modern education risks related to the substitution of a strategic goal of education by a pragmatic purpose of a diploma, as well as excessive technologisation and universalization of formal education, which leads to a decrease in creative motivation of teachers and students. The proposed conclusions and observations are of interest to lifelong education researchers and managers of regional educational systems.