Workers'' Faculties in the context of the paradigm of lifelong learning

the experience of the workers' faculties activities from the point of view of lifelong learning is analyzed in the article. The preface part of the article is aimed at general concepts, linked with lifelong learning. The working definition of lifelong learning is given and the characteristic features of the definition important in the context of the following topics: adult education, education in the course of life, self-education, all-round and harmonious development of an individual are highlighted. The significant part of the research describes the functioning of the workers' faculty of the Petrozavodsk State University. The brief characteristics of the peculiarities of the Russian higher school development in the first post-revolution decade is presented, and also the explanation for the reasons of establishing the workers' faculties is given. The analysis of historical sources allow us to conclude that the age range of workers' faculties participants was extremely wide. The upper level exceeded the age of 40. Young and old people studied at the faculty simultaneously, and this fact is one of the characteristic features of lifelong learning. On the basis of scientific sources it was concluded that workers' faculties are the predecessors of the modern preliminary courses at the higher educational institutions which in their turn are a part of the modern lifelong learning system. The other connection between the workers' faculties and lifelong learning is self-education. In the article the author convinces the readers that this form of getting knowledge was characteristic for the workers' faculties. Finally, active cultural and social student life aimed at their all-round development and self-realization is one more link between the workers' faculty and lifelong learning paradigm. The article was written within the frames of the PetrSU Program of Strategic Development for 2012−2016. The article might be interested for the researchers in the field of lifelong learning and the history of the Russian higher school.