Education Policy Analysis

OECD,
2001

1. Introduction
2. The Policy Significance of Lifelong Learning
   1. Distinguishing features of the lifelong learning approach

1. Introduction

It is five years since OECD Education Ministers adopted "lifelong learning for all" as a guiding framework for their education policy, and asked the Organisation to investigate how best to implement lifelong learning strategies. This chapter summarises the OECD's response to that mandate. It attempts to answer the following questions:

• What is meant by strategies for lifelong learning, and how do they differ from other strategies?
• What are the key policy directions for implementing them?
• What are some examples of policies countries have adopted in practice to implement these strategies?

Section 2 sets out the essential features of the OECD view of lifelong learning strategies, and how these differ from strategies that do not adopt a lifelong learning approach. Section 3 gives an overview of how the lifelong learning approaches are being interpreted and applied in countries. The main body of the chapter reviews five areas of key importance to a lifelong learning strategy and illustrates them with some examples from country experiences. The final section presents some concluding remarks.

2. The Policy Significance of Lifelong Learning

The concept of lifelong learning, or lifelong education, became current in the 1970s. In its early development the concept was equated with giving adults access to formal courses at educational institutions. In choosing the goal of "lifelong learning for all" in 1996, OECD Education Ministers signalled a major departure by adopting a more comprehensive view. This goal covers all purposeful learning activity, from the cradle to the grave, that aims to improve knowledge and competencies for all individuals who wish to participate in learning activities. International organisations such as UNESCO and the European Commission have also adopted the more comprehensive approach.

2.1 Distinguishing features of the lifelong learning approach

The lifelong learning framework emphasises that learning occurs during the whole course of a person's life. Formal education contributes to learning as do the non-formal and informal settings of home, the workplace, the community and society at large.¹ The key features of the lifelong learning approach are:

• First, it offers a systemic view of learning. The lifelong learning framework examines the demand for, and the supply of, learning opportunities, as part of a connected system covering the whole lifecycle and comprising all forms of formal and informal learning.
• Second, the centrality of the learner. The learner, and initiatives to cater for the diversity of learner needs, form the core of lifelong learning strategies. This signals a shift from educational policies that focus on formal institutional arrangements for learning. It represents a shift of attention from the supply of learning to the demand side.
• Third, the approach emphasises the motivation to learn, and draws attention to self-paced and self-directed learning.
• Fourth, it takes a balanced view of the multiple objectives of education policy. These objectives relate to economic, social or cultural outcomes; to personal development; to citizenship and so on. The lifelong approach recognises that at the individual level the priorities among these objectives may change over the course of an individual's lifetime, and that each objective has to be taken into consideration in policy development.

Among these key characteristics, the first is the one that most distinguishes lifelong learning from other approaches to education policy. No competing approach is truly systemic: all are sector-specific. This central difference has important policy implications. In a systemic strategy:

People at each stage of life need not only to be given specific opportunities to learn new things, but also to be equipped and motivated to undertake further learning, where necessary organised and directed by themselves. Curricula, pedagogical practices and the organisation of learning all need to be examined from this perspective.

Each learning setting needs to be linked to others, to enable individuals to make transitions and progress through various learning stages. Provision therefore needs to be structured in a way that creates appropriate linkages and pathways.

Resources for education cannot be looked at only in the context of separate sectors of formal provision. The lifelong learning approach raises questions about whether the distribution of education and training resources is optimal in promoting an individual's engagement in learning over the lifetime, and addresses resources for informal as well as formal learning.

No single ministry has a monopoly of interest in lifelong learning. The approach requires a high level of co-ordination for developing and implementing policy.

Thus, the 1990s "cradle-to-grave" vision of lifelong learning is substantially broader than the notions of adult education or recurrent education that previously shaped the debate on education policy. The next section reviews briefly some of the strategic approaches that countries have taken to implement this vision.

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