Lifelong Learning
What is lifelong learning? (Ray Land University of Qld)
Over the past three decades the concept of “lifelong learning” has been variously used across all levels of educational provision from classroom-based curriculum through adult education to system policy. Until the 1990s, the concept seemed to be identified most often in relation to adult and post-compulsory education. The term was often linked with others such as ‘adult education’ and ‘vocational education’ focusing upon adult access to formal post-compulsory and continuing education.
More recently however, there has been a shift towards a concept of lifelong learning as learning that enhances and contributes to knowledge and skills. In 1996 the OECD committed to the importance and relevance of lifelong learning (OECD 1996). This has led to a notion of a learning journey from “cradle-to-grave” and has been prompted by the emergence of knowledge economies and information societies, the key features of which are well known and documented, and include:
- Globalisation and increasing trade liberalism
- Ageing populations
- Changing nature of work and employment opportunities
- Increased mobility and conversely, immobility of populations
- Increasing impact of new and future ICT
- A shift away from manufacturing towards knowledge and service economies
The emerging global knowledge economy is profoundly altering demands on labour markets and citizenry worldwide. It is estimated that by 2010 the industrial workforce of advanced nations will only account for 10-15% of all workers (OECD 2000). The citizens of these societies require an increasing range of skills and knowledge in order to operate effectively in their daily lives. The students we are teaching in today’s primary schools will not live in a society where life and work are pre-ordained, but rather a society where the individual must assume responsibility for decisions, accept the consequences and as a result, become highly adaptable to changing circumstances. Thus lifelong learning is now seen as a developmental journey of individual and social transitions through schooling, tertiary and vocational settings, adult learning, as well as ongoing learning at home, the workplace and the community.
The concept of lifelong learning, then, focuses attention on the need for continual learning and on the sets of generic skills and capacities that will equip individuals and societies to embrace this expanded notion of learning and the challenges of living and working in knowledge economies.
What does it mean for Beaumaris School?
At Beaumaris Primary School we have identified those lifelong learning skills and competencies (Lifelong Learning Skills and Competencies Framework) are and how they can be developed across the sub schools, enhancing transition through the school and into later schooling and life. It provides us with a framework that supports the development of well skilled and knowledgeable learners who are able to work, think and make decisions independently to maximise responsibilities and opportunities that arise.
Developing the framework involved active input from the school community, building onto and informing each other as it evolved, culminating in a set of developmental transitional skills and competencies that depict what Beaumaris students need to make a successful transition into secondary education and later life.