Is adult education an effective tool to foster empowerment among beneficiaries? What type of adult education could help trigger changes that enable individuals to overcome dependency on social security services?

This article seeks to outline the main considerations stemming from direct observation of an academic training program involving a group of young women who, for several years, have benefited from a social policy measure—Social Insertion Income (RSI), facing long-term or even chronic unemployment. This training took place in a Private Institution of Social Solidarity (IPSS), which aimed to increase the employability opportunities of these beneficiaries within its intervention framework. This institution prioritizes adult education as a key area of intervention, based on an analysis that highlights the lack of professional qualifications and chronic unemployment as factors most directly influencing the need for state financial assistance.

The training promoters draw on theoretical analyses linking social exclusion processes with social dynamics that produce inequalities, particularly in terms of access to resources that shape individuals' positions within the social structure (Coser, L. 1965). They seek to maintain a critical perspective on various ideological interpretations that frame poverty strictly as a result of individual shortcomings or cultural inferiority, while taking seriously a structural approach that underscores the impact of external, structuring factors within the opportunity system on individual development (Bourdieu, 1993).

From a theoretical standpoint, the organization promoting the training assumes that it should be aligned with the principles of “education for freedom,” as developed by Paulo Freire. (Freire, 1967). From this perspective, education for freedom requires that educators act as facilitators in fostering a critical understanding of social mechanisms, not only those perpetuating poverty but also those shaping individual development (Berger &Luckmann, 1996).

Keywords: Education, unemployment, empowerment, dependency, social policy, social vulnerability.