Access to learning opportunities and recognition of  learning  achievements is essential for all citizens for their daily life, working life, and life within the  community. In the revised Lisbon strategy the European Commission calls for Europe to refocus its approach to growth and employment. The  development of multi-purpose Adult Learning Centres (ALCs) is considered an important element in making lifelong learning opportunities easily accessible for all.

ALCs have a unique contribution to make in enabling individuals to achieve their personal development goals by identifying and exploiting all available learning opportunities – formal, nonformal and informal. Since the vast majority of what we know and can do is acquired nonformally and informally, the focus of the QUALC project is on ALC non-formal/informal facilitation and specifically on the quality of this facilitation. A strong European partnership is developing the first European Quality Assurance model for ALCs to enable them to continue to provide a first-class service to the 21^st century learner.