There is a widespread consensus that adult education and continuing vocational training are central elements in a strategy aimed at achieving economic growth. However, the stakes are not only economic. Adult education has also become a structural determinant of employment opportunities, earnings and quality of life. Adults who lack the motivation, opportunity or information needed to participate in a lifelong learning society will become increasingly disadvantaged. Educational systems must prepare people for a life of active learning.
This volume argues that the principles of lifelong learning must be at the heart of a new approach to skills development. Lifelong learning is advocated not as a theoretical and utopian idea, but as the inevitable reality in affluent, technologically advanced, politically and culturally pluralistic societies.

Each chapter addresses one of several questions important for the future of lifelong education. In particular they concern theory and research on the five themes: lifespan development and education; intelligence; transfer and capacity to learn; informal learning in the work place; learning to learn; and the implications for policy.