Lifelong learning implies the distribution of learning opportunities throughout the lifetime; the learning society implies that these opportunities should be available to all and occur in all areas of society, from the school and college, to the home, the community and the workplace. These notions have become fashionable for good reasons. Rapid changes in technology and work organization mean that more people will be required to have higher levels of skill and to undertake retraining continuously throughout their working lives. Increased leisure time for adults, won through shorter working hours or enforced through unemployment, allows new opportunities for formal learning and creates demand for education at different phases of the life cycle. Longer life expectancy, and the ageing of populations, means that more active retirees are seeking stimulation through new forms of learning. These greater demands for learning opportunities cannot be met entirely by the existing institutions for formal learning, nor need they be. Information technology makes possible a variety of new modes and sites for learning (OECD, 1996). © Individual contributors, 2000.
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