Abstract:

The content of lifelong learning is changing and this is depicted in the key lifelong learning competences as they are appeared in the European Union documents. Among the eight key competences more emphasis is given on entrepreneurship competence and as a consequence entrepreneurship education is gaining ground. In order to investigate the evolution of lifelong learning competences, a focus was put on the ideology, communication and the purposive orientation of European strategies concerning lifelong learning. By critically addressing the changes occurred in the recommendations of the European Parliament and the Council published in the Official Journal of the European Union on the key competences for lifelong learning, the value of the relative European strategies became better understandable. Some official documents dated on different periods of time were studied through a semiotic analysis. This research approach is in the framework of structural semantics and the basic methodological tool, chosen as the most relevant for this analysis, is “isotopia”/ isotopy, which is the outcome of the grouping of different categories of units. In our case these units are words, phrases, sentences. The European Reference Framework for the key competences of lifelong learning constitutes a system of signs which is articulated through a set of codes concerning the issues which define key competences such as ability code, knowledge code, skills code, attitudes code and context code. The comparison of two documents dated in 2006 and 2008 made evident the difference in the way key competences are defined and what they reveal about the evolution of the content of lifelong learning, the corresponding European strategies and the emerging value of entrepreneurial education. This analysis reflects on the shift in vocabulary and codes from skills and competences to enriched and expanded competences with a more scientific tone and shed light on the prevailing ideology and value of European strategies where lifelong learning is the main path for opening the horizons and increasing the expectations for a better future of Europe.

Keywords:

Lifelong learning, semiotics, competences, European strategy, entrepreneurship education.