Adult General Education (AGE, or FG for “Formation Générale”) enables Centres to offer various training and educational activities, including:
- Educational activities leading to an official certificate or diploma, the acquisition of competencies or the completion of prerequisites for vocational training or advanced studies (like CEGEP)
- Duly approved training activities for which MEES is responsible
- Popular education activities, which are not associated with the curriculum and which are informal and self-financed
- Activities related to labour-force training
- Activities related to basic training, francization and the development of digital skills held in companies and financed by them
Although obtaining a certificate or diploma is often the aim of adult general education, it does not represent the sole outcome of a learning plan. Services offered to adult learners also strive to:
- get access to francization services
- facilitate their social integration
- help them access the labour market and remain employed, and to promote their job mobility
- help them develop their autonomy
- help them participate in the economic, social and cultural development of their communities
The Common Core Basic Education Program is the result of decisions taken by the Ministère with respect to the education reform in Québec. It consists of 15 programs of study in the first phase of adult general education. These programs of study are made up of courses spanning three levels: Literacy, Presecondary and Secondary Cycle One.
The Diversified Basic Education Program is an adaptation for adult learners of the Québec Education Program, Secondary Cycle Two, for the youth sector. Thus, the subject areas, broad areas of learning and cross-curricular competencies in both programs are the same. However, in order to meet the specific needs of adult learners, the division into courses is different and some programs of study are found only in adult education.
