WHAT IS LIFELONG LEARNING?

Life long-learning is essential for our well-being and performance.

Lifelong learning’  is defined as the “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated”  pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development, but also self-sustainability, rather than competitiveness and employability.

The concept of Lifelong Learning was introduced in Denmark as early as in 1971.  Another feather in the Danish cap!  The term recognises that learning is not confined to childhood or the classroom but takes place throughout life and in a range of situations.

During the last fifty years, constant scientific and technological innovation  has had a profound effect on learning needs and styles. Learning can no longer be divided into a place and time to acquire knowledge (school!) and a place and time to apply the knowledge acquired (the workplace!).

Instead, learning can be seen as something that takes place on an ongoing basis from our daily interactions with others and with the world around us. It can take the form of formal learning or informal learning, or self-directed learning.

The concept of lifelong learning has become of vital importance with the emergence of new technologies that change how we receive and gather information, collaborate with others, and communicate.

The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies has great potential to support lifelong learning endeavours, allowing for informal, just-in-time, day-to-day learning.  In order to survive and thrive, organisations and individuals must be able to adjust, and enhance their knowledge and skills to meet evolving needs. This means the most important thing someone can learn is how to learn.

In India and elsewhere, the “University of the Third Age” (U3A) provides an example of the almost spontaneous emergence of autonomous learning groups, accessing the expertise of their own members, in the pursuit of knowledge and shared experience. No prior qualifications and no subsequent certificates feature in this approach to learning for its own sake and, as participants testify, engagement in this type of learning in later life can indeed ‘prolong active life’.

In Sweden, the successful concept of study circles, an idea launched almost a century ago, still represents a large portion of the adult education provision. A study circle is one of the most democratic forms of a learning environment that has been created. There are no teachers and the group decides on what content will be covered, scope will be used, as well as a delivery method.

The learner in this system is not restricted by time, space or age. A learner can think and learn at his own will, at his own place and at any time whenever he/she feels free to learn.