Lifelong Learning
Lifelong Learning
Indispensable for everyone today
Traditional vocational training is still an important career milestone, but it is neither the starting point nor the end of the line. The Internet of Things, automation and AI systems are creating jobs that require completely different skills and competencies than we can imagine today. That is why Lifelong Learning is so important.
Lifelong Learning is a concept that aims to enable people to learn throughout their lifespan and thus not lose touch with the labor market, the economy and society. Lifelong Learning places significant emphasis on the self and information literacy of individuals and has found inclusion in many conservative as well as progressive education policy programs.
Lifelong Learning: for yourself or for the boss?
Incidentally, the term is much older than the debate today in the context of digitization. In 1962, lifelong education was first listed as a topic in the documents of international organizations. At the then UNESCO conference in Hamburg, there was a reference to the fact that the International Committee for the Advancement of Adult Education, which was set up by the Paris headquarters, addressed the demand for lifelong education for all. Despite the multiple use of the term, there has never been a universally accepted definition. In the European Union, 1996 was the “European Year of Lifelong Learning”.
In cooperation with UNESCO, the United Nations developed a concept for Lifelong Learning with the aim of enabling people to master all of life’s challenges on the basis of individual self-determination. The main aim is to promote self-confident, intelligent, and creative action and not primarily to meet the expectations of teachers, trainers, and employers, which are all too often short-sighted and geared to specific performance. Later, the concept of Lifelong Learning acquired the connotation of imparting competencies that are primarily subject to entrepreneurial and economic considerations and that are in demand in the labor market.
