Further Education as an Integrative Pivot of Lifelong Learning
this study is focused on analysing further education as an integrative pivot of lifelong learning. Modern universities are currently undergoing changes in terms of transformation into entrepreneurial units aimed at commercialization of educational services including further educational programs. The topicality of the research is stipulated by the global urge to stay competitive in the saturated educational services market due to the increasing number of institutions both state and private rendering educational services. The aim of the study is to reveal the needs for further education of representatives among young and academic audiences and devise a course syllabus within further educational programs relevant to the detected requirements of potential listeners. The authors put forward a hypothesis suggesting that there are courses whose unique selling points might be attractive to learners. The results obtained through the questionnaires demonstrated that students and academic staff envision an ideal course to meet all their educational needs in a different way which gives momentum to reconsider the format of rendering educational services and recompose further educational programs making them client-friendly in terms of duration, group size, location, range of courses available and flexibility regarding program contents. The results of the study are of significance due to the fact that further educational programs will be far more susceptible to the needs and requirements of the target audience possessing such features as adjustability, flexibility and modularity.