Lifelong learning is the continuous building of skills and knowledge throughout the life of an individual. It occurs through experiences encountered in the course of a lifetime. These experiences could be formal (training, counseling, tutoring, mentorship, apprenticeship, higher education, etc.) or informal (experiences, situations, etc.)[1] Lifelong learning, also known as LLL, is the "lifelong, voluntary, and self-motivated"[2] pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. As such, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also competitiveness and employability.[3]
From Harper Collins Dictionary: (Social Science / Education) Lifelong Learning is the provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people's lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfillment. It shares mixed connotations with other educational concepts such as Adult Education, Training, Continuing Education, Permanent Education and other terms that relate to learning beyond the formal educational system. In the African context, Lifelong Learning may refer to an individual's continuous acquisition of knowledge and skills over time and the ability to pass them on to others in a manner that is understood. The ability to pass this knowledge and skills on from one person to another is very important, as it keeps the learning cycle in motion and makes it 'lifelong'.
Lifelong education means education resulting from integration of formal, non-formal, and informal education so as to create ability for continuous lifelong development of quality of life. Learning is therefore part of life which takes place at all times and in all places. It is a continuous lifelong process, going on from birth to the end of our life, beginning with learning from families, communities, schools, religious institutions, workplaces, etc.[4] The African traditional society envisioned lifelong learning by the roles one was expected to play in society from child, youth (boy or girl), young adult, junior elder to senior elder. Today with less defined changes in life roles there is need for new strategies to motivate lifelong learning.
In this age group, a lot of learning takes place, providing a foundation for future learning habits and resourcefulness. This is probably the age group where the greatest amount of informal learning occurs, as children imitate almost everything from parents, peers and their environment. Psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and other behavioral psychologists emphasize the importance of childhood learning. Learning in this stage affects the development of all other learning abilities later in life.
Learning in the 6 – 24 age group primarily takes place in educational institutions, from primary and secondary to tertiary levels. Family life, social organizations, religious institutions, and mass media can also play a role in non-formal and informal learning during this time. The objective of learning in this period is the holistic development of learners in four aspects, namely: physical, intellectual, social capacity, emotional and mental development.
Individuals in the 25 – 60 age group can learn informally during their working lives through the use of instructional media, mostly from their occupations, work-places, colleagues, touring, mass media, information technologies, environment and nature. Adults learn from experiences and problem solving. They therefore need continuous development of intellect, capability and integrity.
In their senior years people may seek new knowledge for their own sake. This could be termed autoandragogy, from pedagogy, an adult who tutors him/herself. The challenge of seeking new knowledge and teaching themselves may result in a sense of pride of accomplishment and help maintain self-esteem. This may be further enhanced by offering their new knowledge in service to their local community, thus continuing to make valued contributions to society.[5]
Until the middle of the 1800s, higher education focused on educating the young in traditional, classical curricula. By the mid-19th, century Europe and the United States used the best technology of their day, the postal system, to open educational opportunities to people who wanted to learn, but were not able to attend conventional schools. The students who most benefited from such correspondence education included those with physical disabilities, women who were not allowed to enroll in educational institutions open only to men, people who had jobs during normal school hours, and those who lived in remote regions where schools did not exist.
By the end of the century, however, a number of vibrant institutional movements had appeared that expanded the scope of traditional education and the range of learners who were served. Colleges and universities grew to embrace technical and scientific subjects, vocational education, applications of research to practical matters and problem solving correspondence courses through continuing education. Education, training, and professional development for living a good life and making a good living thrived together in public colleges and universities. Community colleges grew to become critical providers of traditional and adult learning.
Many private institutions, especially those in urban or metropolitan areas, also introduced adult learning to serve proximate populations. Private, for-profit universities and proprietary vocational schools moved aggressively into the traditional and the adult learning market. New technologies and the introduction of the Internet introduced online, blended and e-learning, making it even easier to serve adult learners. Continuing education and distance learning organizations lead the way by adopting technologies and flexible operations to support the varied needs of adult learners.
By the end of the 20th century, most major universities were expanding their traditional, degree-credit offerings with a variety of adult, continuing, and executive education experiences, some for credit, and some non-credit. New education programs were offered through a combination of organizational mechanisms: Extension Divisions, Adult and Continuing Education Units, Schools of Professional Study, Executive Education Programs and Distance Learning Units. The diversity of these programs and their unique operations propagated completely new organizations within the traditional institution.
New processes for education delivery and learner support mechanisms advanced to meet the dynamic needs of the adult learner marketplace. The early 21st century began the age of education globalization with local education institutions continuing their expansion efforts both within and outside North America, in an attempt to meet growing market demand. The breakdown of geographic boundaries has facilitated both local and global competition. Today’s depressed economic environment and challenged workforce have dramatically increased the needs and demands of learners to retool their capabilities, acquire new competencies and align knowledge to the emerging new economy to avoid being laid off. At the same time, leaders within traditional education institutions, colleges and universities, are aggressively seeking new sources of revenues to counteract current federal, state and local budgeting shortfalls.
A challenged economic environment coupled with the reduction in traditional institutional funding has created a perfect storm of opportunity for organizations adept at evaluating, creating and offering new education programs. Those institutions with historical developments and expansions in adult learning, continuing education and executive education have recognized an innate ability to meet the diverse needs of today’s economically challenged learner.
One of the first uses of the term lifelong education can be traced to Yeaxlee,[6] although it was the United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) during the 1960s and 1970s that popularised the concept as a way of connecting the various stages of formal education and linking them with informal and non-formal learning.
It was seen as a way of seeking to broaden the concept of education and foster education for all, while promoting education for both social development and economic growth.[7] Two key publications of the time UNESCO publication Learning to Be[8] Faure and Ettore Gelpi’s Lifelong education and International Relations.</ref>
At the same time organization OECD promoted the concept of recurrent education, specifically to support economic growth and the upskilling of workers in Europe. This focus reached a new momentum by 1996, through Jacques Delors’ report Learning the Treasure Within[9] and the year itself being designated as the European Year of Lifelong Learning. To make the European public aware of the importance of lifelong learning, to foster better cooperation between education and training structures and the business community, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to help to establish a European area of education and training through the academic and vocational recognition of qualifications within the European Union, and to stress the contribution made by education and training to the equality of opportunities.
It may be broadly defined as learning that is pursued throughout life: learning that is flexible, diverse and available at different times and in different places. Lifelong learning crosses sectors, promoting learning beyond traditional schooling and throughout adult life (i.e. post-compulsory education). This definition is based on Jacques Delors’[9] four ‘pillars’ of education for the future.
Learning to be is the hallmark of Peter Vail [10] Permanent white water means "permanent life outside one's comfort zone”. Vail argues that the only way today’s managerial leader can cope, survive, and be successful in this white water world is to become a continual learner. The central question is, “What would learning be like in permanent white water?”
This is underpinned by "Learning to Learn".
Lifelong learning can instill creativity, initiative and responsiveness in people thereby enabling them to show adaptability in post-industrial society through enhancing skills to:
The emphasis is on learning to learn and the ability to keep learning for a lifetime.
Learning Society looks beyond formal educational environments and locates learning as a quality not just of individuals but also as an element of systems.
The notion of learning society gained considerable recognition because:
If learning involves all of one's life, in the sense of both time-span and diversity, and all of society, including its social and economic as well as its educational resources, then we must go even further than the necessary overhaul of 'educational systems' until we reach the stage of a learning society. [8]
The learning society is an educated society, committed to active citizenship, liberal democracy and equal opportunities. This supports lifelong learning within the social policy frameworks of post-Second World War social democracies. The aim is to provide learning opportunities to educate adults to meet the challenges of change and citizenship. Support for this conception was put forward largely by liberal educators in the metropolitan areas of the industrialized North in the 1960s and 1970s.
The concept of lifelong learning spans a wide range of education and training issues and speaks to many different audiences. Common themes conveyed in literature on lifelong learning articulate four characteristics which transform ‘education and training’ into the concept of ‘lifelong learning’.[11]
The first characteristic of lifelong learning is that it encompasses both formal and non-formal/informal types of education and training. Formal learning includes the hierarchically structured school system that runs from primary school through the university and organized school-like programs created in business for technical and professional training. Whereas informal learning describes a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educational influences and resources in his or her environment, from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media.[12]
The second common theme of lifelong learning is the importance of self-motivated learning. There is a heavy emphasis on the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own learning. Lifelong learners are, therefore, not defined by the type of education or training in which they are involved, but by the personal characteristics that lead to such involvement. Cassandra B. Whyte emphasized the importance of locus of control and successful academic performance.[13][14] Personal characteristics of individuals who are most likely to participate in learning, either formally or informally throughout their lives, have acquired:
Although education and training may have economic benefits for individuals, it is recognised that economic incentives alone are not necessarily sufficient to motivate people to engage in education and training. A range of motivational barriers need to be identified and addressed in order for some people to participate in education and training. While some of these barriers are economic and can be overcome with financial assistance, many people are deterred from engaging in education and training by social and personal factors.
An Australian survey of participants in adult education courses identified a range of factors motivating people to undertake adult learning, such as:[15]
By acknowledging the range of factors that act as both a motivation and barrier to engagement in education and training, lifelong learning policies tend to promote participation in learning for its own sake rather than as a means to a specific end (i.e. employment). The goal of participation in learning thus appears to be more significant than the reason why. This can be seen as an acknowledgment of the range of factors that motivate people to participate in formal and informal learning other than, or in addition to, instrumental goals.[11]
Self-funded learning is the third characteristic of the lifelong learning literature. The concept of self-funded learning is linked to the characteristic of self motivated learning. In recognition of the costs involved in subsidising lifelong involvement in education and training, the lifelong learning policy agenda emphasises the responsibility of individuals to finance their own continuing education and training with minimal support from government. The West report defines a lifelong learner as a person who takes responsibility for their own learning and who is prepared to invest time, money and effort in education or training on a continuous basis.[16]
The fourth distinctive feature of the lifelong learning policy literature is a commitment to universal participation in education and training. In advocating 'lifelong learning for all', the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) argues that universal participation is necessary for meeting the economic demands of the 21st century. The concept of universal participation includes both informal and formal learning for all purposes - social, economic and personal. In arguing that universal participation in lifelong learning is necessary for social cohesion in a time of rapid economic and social change, the Delors[9] report proposes four characteristics of lifelong learners that would be the Pillars of a learning society:
The World Bank asserts that lifelong learning is essential for individuals to keep pace with the constantly changing global job market and technology.[17] It is preparation for a destabilized life of changing jobs, job requirements and geographical locations. In this vision of the nomadic worker, people must constantly adapt to new living conditions, technology and work requirements. This requires, advocates of lifelong learning state, learning skills that help the individual to adjust to an ever changing world.
The World Bank’s approach to lifelong learning involves a combination of competencies. The Bank defines the knowledge and competencies needed for lifelong learning as:
...including basic academic skills, such as literacy foreign language, math and science skills and the ability to use information and communication technology. Workers must use these skills effectively, act autonomously and reflectively and join and function in socially heterogeneous groups.[18]
According to the World Banks approach, the lifelong learner should, act autonomously in devising a life plan and being prepared to work in a multicultural workforce.[19]
UNESCO supports a more humanistic vision of lifelong learning as compared to the starkly economic arguments of the World Bank and the OECD.
UNESCO’s discourse on lifelong learning has focused on the full development of the individual. The 1972 report commissioned Learning to Be: The World of Education today and Tomorrow [8] argues that the emphasis should be on learning to learn and not on matching schooling and the needs of the labour market.[19] The report states, “The aim of education is to enable man to be himself...and the aim of education in relation to employment and economic progress should be not so much to prepare...for a specific, lifetime vocation, as to ‘optimise’ mobility among the professions and afford permanent stimulus to the desire to learn and to train oneself.”[8] The report’s perspective is that the love of learning creates a desire to lifelong learning and maintenance of a learning society; and therefore the goal of lifelong learning is to give people the power to exercise democratic control over economic, scientific and technological development.[19]
However in the 1990s, UNESCO’s humanistic approach to lifelong learning was sidelined due to the rhetoric of the knowledge economy and human capital development. Despite this UNESCO avoided the purely economic arguments for lifelong learning, which is evident in its 1996 report on lifelong learning titled :Learning: The Treasure Within. This report defines lifelong learning as adaptation to changes in technology and as the continuous “process of forming whole human beings- their knowledge and aptitudes, as well as the critical faculty and the ability to act”[20]
The OECD’s lifelong learning framework emphasises that learning occurs during the entire course of a person’s life. “Formal education contributes to learning as do the non-formal and informal settings of home, the workplace, the community and society at large”.[21]
There are five key features of the lifelong learning approach, as conceived by the OECD. First, it offers a systemic view of learning, since it examines the demand for, and the supply of, learning opportunities, as part of a connected system covering the whole lifecycle and comprising all forms of formal and informal learning. Secondly, it emphasises the centrality of the learner and the need for initiatives that cater for the diversity of learner needs. This represents a shift of attention from the supply of learning to the demand side. Thirdly, the approach emphasises the motivation to learn, and draws attention to self-paced and selfdirected learning. Fourthly, it stresses the multiple objectives of education policy, which include economic, social or cultural outcomes; personal development, and citizenship. Thelifelong learning approach also recognises that, for the individual, the priorities among these objectives can change over the lifecycle; and that each objective has to be taken into consideration in policy development.[22]
According to the European Commission on Lifelong Learning, the scale of current economic and social change, the rapid transition to a knowledge-based society and demographic pressures resulting from an ageing population in Europe are all challenges which demand a new approach to education and training, within the framework of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is thus defined as:
‘All learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence, within a personal civic social and/ or employment-related perspective’[23]
The European Commission on Lifelong Learning initiative hopes to empower citizens to move freely between learning settings, jobs, regions and countries in pursuit of learning. Hence, lifelong learning focuses on learning from pre-school education until after retirement ("from the cradle to the grave") and covers all forms of education (formal, informal or non-formal). The European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Initiative enables people at all stages of their lives to take part in stimulating learning experiences, as well as helping to develop the education and training sector across Europe.[24]
Whilst the dominant debates around lifelong learning have been from Westernised countries, there are other related perspectives that are in seen around the world.
Lifelong learning in traditional African societies has spiritual, political, economic and cultural aspects. There has been particular emphasis on traditional African societies practicing indigenous African pedagogies that embrace lifelong learning principles as foundations for active citizenship and nation-building.[25] These values are not concerned with a global competitive market or the strength of individualism and self determination.[25] However, the internet has exposed the latest African generations to external experiences - through social media interactions which have affected their perspective. They are now more aware of globalization and are flexible in adapting new global life learning styles.
A good example is the spiritual dimension which locates the individual in the presence of a supreme being and at the centre of communal life. All activities must promote the existence of the community and put its interests before the self. Whilst there is evidence that these values are also changing through globalization influences,[26] the influence of ancestors, the extended family and traditional democratic processes of decision making through consensus at community meeting places are primary value systems in African contexts.[26]
Lifelong learning is articulated in the South African Development Community definition as a visionary concept defined as:
A key purpose of lifelong learning is democratic citizenship, connecting individuals and groups to the structures of social, political and economic activity in both local and global contexts.[27]
Compared with European notions of lifelong, there are some differences. Firstly, democratic citizenship is placed at the forefront. Secondly, individuals and groups are included in the target audience. Thirdly, people are being connected to local and global contexts. Whilst the concept of global network connections is implied in European documents, the role of connection here indicates a more holistic perception that Africa can be a mutual player within a wider world. The combined effect of this definition is to capture almost incidentally the spirituality and social situatedness of Africa’s pre-colonial heritage. It stands apart from, but does not reject, European lifelong learning agendas. The difficulty in Africa is not its capacity to contribute to the intellectual debate, rather the sustainability of its own ideology through implementation.[28] which stressed the importance of lifelong learning ‘for fulfilling our new responsibilities at work, for teacher upgrading, for coping with changes in society and technology, and for reacting effectively to HIV and AIDS. It framed these needs within a goal to make lifelong learning ‘both possible and satisfying’.[29]
The ensuing National Policy on Adult Learning was published in 2003 by the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture. Its first aim is to create a ‘learning nation’, emphasising that the population needs to be ‘active learners if we are to achieve our vision of liberation from poverty, hunger, ignorance and disease’.[7]
IN RWANDA Introduction The mandate of all higher education institutions in Rwanda is to support the social, economic and political goals of our nation. The principle of academic integrity, high-quality teaching and learning, providing equal opportunities, seeking excellence and increasing access by developing more opportunities for flexible learning both on and off campus must be central to the planning and delivery of our taught provision. Excellence in Learning and Teaching is the centre of all our activities, and the importance of continually improving them does not need justification. It must therefore be important to provide academic staff with adequate means to deliver service of high quality and assure high and improving standards, and adequate staff development to build their capacity to do so.
Global and national context for learning and teaching.
• Increased demand for external accountability, with the establishment of the National Higher Education Council and the expectation that our degrees shall be benchmarked to international standards. • A growing emphasis on flexibility and lifelong learning. • Structural changes to academic programmes arising from the development of a credit framework. • Increasing focus upon the development of personal and transferable skills, including employability and entrepreneurial skills, to ensure that our graduates have the competence that employers are entitled to expect from them. • New forms of learning arising from developments in ICT and other technologies –distance learning and blended learning. • The need to increase the provision of part-time, community and work-based learning, including students learning off campus.
Lifelong learning in East Africa
Like many other definitions, Lifelong learning is also defined as the process of keeping your mind and body engaged—at any age—by actively pursuing knowledge and experience. Many East Africans need this aspect in ensuring that their skills are up-to-date with the ever changing needs of the society. Given that many countries are not yet as developed as the first world. As many people strive to improve their knowledge base in Africa based on the new emerging issues and if they are to catch up with the digital pace then lifelong learning goes along way into keeping their minds sharp, Improving their memory, Increasing self-confidence, offering an inexpensive way to try something new, giving them new ways of saving money as they learn to “do it themselves”, giving them a feeling of accomplishment, helping them meet people who share their interests for example on internet based social networks, building on the skills they already have, offering an opportunity for themto learn a new skill or trade and increase your income and giving us a new interest that we can share with families and friends. In that sense, lifelong learning can be a more rewarding experience and most especially now that avenues for attaining knowledge are more clear and open with the advent of information and communication technologies.
Knowledge consists of different types:
Journals, books, libraries, and museums house knowledge. Most knowledge in these structures is in the "about" and "doing" levels. Knowing to be, where to find knowledge, and knowing to transform are all outside of these. Higher-level understanding is through reflection and informal learning.
Traditional educational systems, in which the teacher is the sole source of knowledge, are ill suited to equip people to work and live in a knowledge economy. Some of the competencies such a society demands—teamwork, problem solving, motivation for lifelong learning—cannot be acquired in a learning setting in which teachers dictate facts to learners who seek to learn them only in order to be able to repeat them. A lifelong learning system must reach larger segments of the population, including people with diverse learning needs. It must be competency driven rather than age related. Within traditional institutional settings, new curricula and new teaching methods are needed. At the same time, efforts need to be made to reach learners who cannot enroll in programs at traditional institutions. Online and distance programs are considered as some of the methods implemented to achieve this goal.
Providing people with the tools they need to function in the knowledge economy requires adoption of a new pedagogical model. This model differs from the traditional model in many ways. Teachers and trainers serve as facilitators rather than transmitters of knowledge, and more emphasis is placed on learning by doing, working on teams, and thinking creatively.
The lifelong learning model enables learners to acquire more of the new skills demanded by the knowledge economy as well as more traditional academic skills. In Guatemala, for example, learners taught through active learning—that is, learning that takes place in collaboration with other learners and teachers, in which learners seek out information for themselves—improved their reading scores more and engaged more in democratic behaviours than learners not in the program.[31] In the United Kingdom learners taught thinking skills in science were able to improve their performance in other subjects, and the effects increased over time.[32]
Table 2.3 Characteristics of Traditional and Lifelong Learning Models[17]
There are five key areas for countries to consider when seeking to implement strategies for lifelong learning for all and in determining the priorities for policy reforms.[21]
First, recognise all forms of learning, not just formal courses of study.
Secondly, the importance of developing foundation skills that are wider than those traditionally identified as central, including in particular, motivation and the capacity for self-directed learning. The international evidence clearly shows that those people without an upper secondary qualification and without strong literacy skills are among the least likely to participate in further education and training as adults, or as adults to take part in training within enterprises. A culture of learning is important for promoting adult learning; and that an important determinant is the degree to which governments and the social partners are convinced of the need to refresh and upgrade adult skills.
Thirdly, there is emphasis on the reformulation of access and equity priorities in a lifelong context, by looking at the opportunities that are available to individuals across their life-cycle and in the different settings where learning can occur. It is argued that knowledge-based economies and societies cannot afford to exclude a large part of their population from access to education and learning resources. Furthermore, inequalities in society often raise problems of mutual understanding and adjustment within organisations, in society at large and in the democratic process.
Fourthly, the OECD stressed the importance of considering resource allocation across all sectors and settings, including – one might add – the incentives facing the various participants and the likely effect of such incentives on outcomes in terms of lifelong learning.
Fifthly, the requirement for collaboration in policy development and implementation among a wide range of partners, including ministries other than education.[22] Benefits of lifelong learning
The Canadian Council on Learning's Composite Learning Index (CLI) is a combination of 17 statistical indicators that are used to measure annual progress in lifelong learning in more than 4,500 Canadian communities. The yearly CLI report focuses on four main pillars of learning: Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together, and Learning to Be. The indicators include assessments of youth literacy skills, high school dropout rates, participation in secondary education, participation in job-related training, volunteering, access to community institutions, broadband internet access, and learning through sports, culture, media, and cultural resources.[33]
A number of important socio-economic forces are pushing for the lifelong learning approach. The increased pace of globalization and technological change, the changing nature of work and the labour market, and the ageing of populations are among the forces emphasising the need for continuing upgrading of work and life skills throughout life. The demand is for a rising threshold of skills as well as for more frequent changes in the nature of the skills required.
It has also been said that:
Lifelong learning's core values of learning, exploring, and serving, coupled with benefits for the mind, body and spirit make it an incredibly powerful tool for personal transformation and enhancement. Criticisms of lifelong learning.[34]
Nancy Merz Nordstrom, M.Ed., lists the top 10 benefits of lifelong learning as such:[35]
10) Lifelong learning helps fully develop natural abilities.
9) Lifelong learning opens the mind.
8) Lifelong learning creates a curious, hungry mind.
7) Lifelong learning increases our wisdom.
6) Lifelong learning makes the world a better place.
5) Lifelong learning helps us to adapt to change.
4) Lifelong learning helps us find meaning in our lives.
3) Lifelong learning keeps us involved as active contributors to society.
2) Lifelong learning helps us make new friends and establish valuable relationships.
1) Lifelong learning leads to an enriching life of self-fulfillment.
The main criticism of lifelong learning is the predominantly economic interpretation of the term. It has become problematic for many educators and practitioners who have come forward with such terms as “Lifelong (L)Earning” and “Learning to Earn” as their succinct criticism of the way the term is being promoted.
This present situation is a continuation of the OECD lifelong learning discourse made public in its report, Recurrent Education: A Strategy for Lifelong Learning (1973), which reframed the lifelong learning discussion in largely economistic and employability terms. Gelpi points out that “in the industrialized countries, at the time of the economic boom of the 1960’s, the ideology of ‘lifelong education=general education’ reflected in effect the necessity for the rapid training of workers at average and higher levels in the vocational field.[36]
Ivan Illich also criticized notions of lifelong learning for their perpetuation of institutionalised learning for life[37]