A community that promotes a culture of learning by developing effective local partnerships between all sectors of the community, and supports and motivates individuals and organisations to learn.
CEDEFOP. 2014. Terminology of European education and training policy. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Lifelong learning is about more than diversifying the loci and modi of learning, more than expanding access and opportunity, more indeed than transferring primary agency from the educator to the learner. Its value is nothing less than the inspiration for a new idea of human society. Lifelong learning, like sustainable development, is a notional germ from which a different kind of society may sprout; one that values learning both for its uses and its own sake and that likewise values people both for what they do and who they are. Such a “learning society” is not as distant or utopian a vision as it might at first seem. Its inception requires that we re-examine how and why we learn, and then harness our creativity to design systems of learning that enrich all aspects of our lives.