The OECD Observer
October/November 1998, No. 214

 

Lifelong Learning for All
By Donald J. Johnston

 

As we enter the era of the knowledge society, a recent survey of 12 OECD countries provides a sobering thought: at least a quarter of the adult population fails to reach the minimum literacy levels needed to cope adequately with the demands of everyday life and work, let alone structural economic and social change. Sobering indeed, and it is a finding which poses a formidable challenge to education, social, labour market and economic policies. In January 1996 the OECD education ministers agreed to develop strategies for ‘lifelong learning for all’. The approach has been endorsed by ministers of labour, ministers of social affairs and the OECD Council at ministerial level. It is an approach whose importance may now be clearer than ever.

The economic rationale for lifelong learning comes from two principal sources. First, with the rise of the knowledge-based economy, the threshold of skills demanded by employers is being constantly raised. Certainly in respect of skills, the migration from the farm to the factory was easily accomplished compared with what is required for the transition to the knowledge economy. Obviously the rise in unemployment in many OECD countries since the mid-1970s and widening income gaps in others are a product of this knowledge and skill gap. Individuals with low skills have been and will continue to be penalised. Second, technological developments demand a continuous renewal and updating of skills, as career jobs with a single employer become rarer and as job descriptions evolve and diversify rapidly under shifting market conditions.

There are irresistible social arguments in favour of promoting education beyond traditional schooling and throughout adult life. The distribution of learning opportunities is already quite uneven and the polarisation between the knowledge ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ poses a new and pressing political challenge. Apart from unemployment and widening earning gaps there are other problems too; those in small and medium size firms find it harder to gain access to learning than employees of larger firms and in general women have poorer access than men. These discrepancies gnaw at the very fabric of democracy. Lifelong learning strategies can play an important role in breaking the cycle of disadvantage and marginalisation and so reinforce social cohesion. And lifelong learning can instil creativity, initiative and responsiveness in the individual, and therefore deliver better personal economic security.

Lifelong learning does not mean ‘recurrent’ training, but a constant relationship with education, starting with an emphasis on ‘learning to learn’. And while formal education still represents the cornerstone of teaching, the less formal settings of the home, the workplace, the community and society are integral parts of the learning environment too, just as they are part of the foundations of economies and societies. Lifelong learning is already a reality in many OECD countries. The challenge is to find ways of extending it to all.

The importance of basic education cannot be emphasised enough. Lifelong learning policy must begin by strengthening the education of the young. Research suggests that children absorb much more in the first decade of life than thereafter. Early education brings long-term benefits, not only by reducing spending on adult remedial programmes later on, but by equipping people with learning tools that will serve them and their societies for the rest of their lives. Previous generations referred to the importance of the three ‘Rs’: reading, writing and arithmetic. They were right. These are the essential tools for lifelong learning. Preventing under-achievement and premature school leaving, and facilitating the transition from conventional education to working life are key to building lifelong learning policies. The linkages between different sectors of education and training have to be strengthened, and the pathways between learning and work made more flexible.

Education should not be thought of in isolation, and for policy to work all the stakeholders will have to come together to mobilise the necessary resources. There is a need to develop stronger, more coherent partnerships between a wide range of actors across society.

Of the historical constituents of economic growth - land, labour and capital - human capital has emerged as the most important. Resource-poor societies have developed it to engineer impressive comparative advantages. The foundation upon which human capital is built must be education, especially early childhood and primary education, where the role of the state is fundamental.