ABSTRACT
There is little hope of success in re-tuning lifelong learning to encourage wider participation without some fundamental rethink of the implications of what it is and what it is for and why it is so important. This goes back to rediscovery, with all the pointers for direction it suggests need following. That rethink needs to be undertaken in three areas in particular. Two are the direct responsibility of government: top-down centralisation and the obsession with the vocational with formal accredited qualifications as an economic booster. The third runs far wider than government: it concerns the health of democracy itself. Taken together they mean asking awkward questions about how to correct the comprehensive mismatch which seems to characterise lifelong learning at present.
