ABSTRACT
The oddity is that it is almost as if the politicians and the advisers close to them speak and write as though they have discovered something brand new. So when lifelong learning gets trotted out at the flick of a switch it is almost as if it is proclaiming that something new is happening. At one level this is not so; it is as old as the hills. It is called informal learning. There seems a reluctance to recognise the significance of anything which is not done through formal learning. At another level whatever the reasons for hoisting lifelong learning as an educational banner, there is little sign that its implications have been thought through. There is no clear concept of lifelong learning in policy documents. Yet at another level still the very fact that there is so much attention being paid to lifelong learning means that something different is happening. No one is quite clear what.
