It has long been recognised that Europe is facing a number of socio-economic and demographic challenges. Increasing globalisation, rapid technological change, an ageing population, improving the level of education; increasing social and labour risks and the demands of a more knowledge- and skills-intensive European labour market, have resulted in the need to provideadults with opportunities to increase their skill levels in order to meet these challenges.

On 30 May 2014,  Cr. Paul Antonio, Mayor of the Toowoomba Regional Council in Queensland, Australia launched the book, Community Capacity building: Lessons from adult learning in Australia, published by NIACE and edited by Professor Glen Postle, Professor Lorelle Burton and Professor Patrick Danaher, all academics at the University of Southern Queensland(USQ) in Toowoomba.