The ICAE Academy of Lifelong Learning Advocacy (IALLA) is an international training course on advocacy that intends to give emerging leaders in the field of adult education and social movements, the opportunity to acquire the skills to advocate for the right to adult learning and education and to consolidate ICAE as a global network committed to that end. This international course was held for the first time in 2004, in Norway, and since then, a total of six editions have taken place in Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Globally, participation in higher education has risen substantially. According to the OECD ( Education at a Glance 2012) entry rates to university level programmes in OECD countries grew on average by nearly 25 percentage points between 1995 and 2010. Consequently, more than a third of today’s young people have higher level qualifications than their parents and around 62% of young adults are expected to enter university - level programmes over their lifetimes.