ABSTRACT
Lifelong learning has emerged in recent years as a key issue on the policy agenda, with an apparently widespread consensus that ‘it is going to be central to the economic well-being of the UK for us to create a learning society’ (Tuckett, 1997: 1). This emphasis upon lifelong learning as a means of enabling individuals to adapt to changes in the world of work has been characteristic of debates not only in Britain but in the European Union and beyond (Edwards, 1997). While there has been a predominant focus upon lifelong learning in relation to the goal of increasing economic competitiveness this has not been the only policy objective. As Jacques Delors, then president of the European Commission reflected, lifelong education must, in addition,
constitute a continuous process of forming whole human beings – their knowledge and aptitudes, as well as the critical faculty and ability to act. It should enable people to develop awareness of themselves and their environment and encourage them to play their social role at work and in the community.
