The Education Ministry will spend 3.3 billion euros over the next seven years on different programs that will include providing more adult training courses, a senior government official told Kathimerini yesterday.

The funding, from the European Union’s Fourth Community Support Framework for the 2007-2013 period, will help a larger number of Greeks above the age of 25 sit through training programs and improve their qualifications in the labor market.

“In the field of education, 3.3 billion euros will be invested via co-funded programs by Greece and the European Union. Of this, 2.2 billion euros will be included in the Education Ministry’s operational program with a focus on activities aimed at developing education projects and programs” said Education Ministry special secretary Dimitris Skiadas.

“While 1.1 billion euros will be invested in regional education programs targeting an improvement in infrastructure and education equipment, we have an increase of 600 million euros, as during the 2000-2006 period we had a budget of 2.7 billion euros for education,” he said.

The EU has placed a growing weight on lifelong education and this will also be reflected in Greece where the concept of adult learning has only recently started to take off.

By the end of the decade, the EU is aiming for 12.5 percent of the population between the ages of 25 to 64 to have taken part in an education or training program.

Currently the figure in Greece is about 1.8 percent, according to the National Statistics Service.

By the end of 2013, the target is for the figure in Greece to increase to between 7.5 to 8 percent of the adult population.

Other areas the seven-year operation plan will cover include helping fight school dropout rates and helping people with special needs have access to proper studies.

The plan will also target education in new technologies and improve research programs in a bid to draw qualified and experienced researchers from abroad.