The event is part of the 2018 cooperation program on education and training adopted by the 13th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the 37th ASEF Board of Governors’ Meeting in Vietnam in 2017. They agreed to hold four conferences on the topic in four different countries, including Vietnam. Speaking at the event, the Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha said the Vietnamese Party and State have issued many policies and guidelines to build a society that enables people to pursue  life-long learning. Vice President of the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education Phil Hanil Ulf-Daniel Ehlers called for building a suitable learning ecological system for personal development. Participants shared experience in recognising results of study under regular and irregular models to encourage learning throughout life, and policy making towards a life-long culture of learning.