Andragogy: adapting your teaching to adult learners (Qualiopi indicator 6)

A trainer who delivers the same lecture to executives changing careers, workers re-entering employment, and employees upskilling is making the exact mistake Qualiopi regularly flags: treating adults like schoolchildren. Andragogy, theorised by American researcher Malcolm Knowles from the 1970s onward, provides a precise framework to avoid this trap — and it maps almost term for term onto what indicator 6 of the National Quality Reference Framework expects.

Pedagogy and andragogy: a distinction that isn’t just semantic

Pedagogy, in its etymological sense, is the art of leading the child (paidos) through learning: the trainer holds the knowledge, sets the syllabus, and the learner is in a receiving position. Andragogy (andros, the adult man) starts from a different premise: adults arrive in training with experience, already-formed representations, an explicit need to understand the usefulness of what they’re being taught, and a demand for autonomy in their learning path.

A landmark study by Malcolm Knowles, published in 1978 in the journal Community College Review under the title “Andragogy: Adult Learning Theory in Perspective,” formalised six principles that remain the theoretical foundation of the field (DOI 10.1177/009155217800500302): the need to know why one is learning, the learner’s self-concept as an autonomous individual, the central role of prior experience, readiness to learn tied to real-life situations, a problem-solving orientation rather than content accumulation, and motivation that is more intrinsic than external.

What Qualiopi indicator 6 concretely expects

Indicator 6 of the framework requires demonstrating that “the content and delivery methods of the service are adapted to the service’s objectives, to the profile(s) of the target audience, including people with disabilities.” It is therefore not enough to advertise an “active” or “participative” teaching method in a sales brochure: the auditor looks for evidence that the content was genuinely designed for the actual audience taking the course, not a theoretical one.

This indicator naturally follows indicator 5 on operational, assessable objectives and entry positioning under indicator 8: a well-run positioning assessment is useless if the content delivered afterwards stays identical regardless of the profile identified.

Turning Knowles’ principles into audit evidence

Andragogical principle	Operational translation	Evidence expected during audit
Need to understand the “why”	Objectives stated in terms of concrete benefits for the learner’s job	Sequencing document explaining the usefulness of each module
Experience as a resource	Exercises built on lived cases, peer feedback among learners	Exercise sheets, workshop summaries
Problem orientation rather than content orientation	Case studies and simulations drawn from real professional context	Teaching scenarios, case-study materials
Autonomy in learning	Modular paths, learner choice on depth of focus	Individual tracking grids, personalised training plans
Adaptation to specific audiences, including disability	Alternative materials, adjustable pace, disability referent available	Evidence of adaptation, exchanges with the disability referent

Mistakes that betray a “copy-pasted from school” pedagogy

• A single, non-adjustable set of materials, used identically for every audience and every session, never adapted based on the entry positioning results.
• A final assessment disconnected from learners’ professional reality, testing memorisation more than the ability to transfer skills into real situations — a point directly tied to indicator 11 on achieving objectives.
• No professional simulation at all, whereas learning by doing and by experience remains, for adult audiences, one of the best-documented levers for embedding skills — see our article on AFEST (workplace-based training), which pushes this logic to its conclusion.
• Trainers never trained on the specifics of adult learning, even though indicator 22 expects an active approach to developing their teaching skills.

The link with the rest of the framework

Andragogy isn’t a pedagogical nicety: it runs through a chain of indicators the auditor follows in the order of the learner’s journey — indicator 5 (objectives), indicator 8 (positioning), indicator 6 (adapted content), indicator 19 (resources made available), and indicator 11 (outcome assessment). A pedagogy designed for adults, documented at every step, keeps that chain coherent throughout the audit file.

Take action

The Complete Qualiopi Kit provides sequencing templates and the evidence expected for indicator 6, along with the other 31 indicators of the framework. To structure your teaching offer from the moment you launch your activity, the ebook “Create Your Training Organisation in 30 Days” walks through the method step by step, and the complete pack combines both so nothing is left to chance.