ABSTRACT
Following a decade or more of major reform and rapid expansion in the education of young people and adults, policies for ‘education and training’ addressed to national and individual competitiveness have since given way to policies for ‘learning’ directed, more broadly, to personal well-being, social cohesion and economic success. Over the same period, growing importance has been attached to education and learning beyond the compulsory phase, whether viewed as a means of remedying deficiencies in the initial system or aimed at renewing the skills base in search of improved productivity, employability and prosperity. While concepts of education throughout life and lifetime learning had entered into the policy discourse of previous administrations, it was a new Labour government which sought to place investment and participation in lifelong learning at the centre of a strategy to build human and social capital in a knowledge economy.
