Developing your skills throughout the life course is not merely a worthwhile ambition, but has become crucial for participating in the economy and society. Although the concept of lifelong learning (LLL) can be traced back to the early 20th century,[1] changes to the job market due to, in particular, automation and digitisation have made the continuous development of skills important for job security and career progression and to remain economically competitive. More people are forced to adapt to new roles and entirely new sectors. We have also seen a significant increase in temporary and casual contracts and new forms of self-employment in what has become known as the “gig economy”, rendering more people responsible for their own skills development.[2]

The benefits of LLL can be understood in a number of ways, but can be broadly summarised in terms of benefits to the economy and benefits to democracy and societal cohesion.

Economic Benefits of Lifelong Learning

The most common arguments in favour of LLL initiatives centre on their potential economic benefits, both for individuals and society at large. According to a McKinsey report, almost every UK worker needs re- or up-skilling; indeed, about 30.5 million (94% of the current workforce) “lack the full suite of skills they will require in 2030 to perform the jobs well.”[3] Yet many organisations are hesitant to address this growing skills gap due to a variety of reasons. It may be that some organisations fail to be proactive by waiting too long until a significant gap in skills can be observed.[4] Others take too much of a shortsighted approach to organisational change, not recognising the long-term benefits of engaging employees with lifelong learning. Some organisations cite the challenges of cost and time, the fear of employee attrition,[5] and that they “may not know which training – or indeed, whether any training – will suit its needs.”[6] Increasingly, the pressure to reskill has fallen on employees themselves, and many people find that they have to enrol in educational activities to remain competitive in the labour market. This, quite naturally, provides a different range of challenges given that some may not be able to fund further study, cannot reduce their working hours, have caring responsibilities, or experience physical or mental ill-health.[7]

Regardless of the reason, it is certainly in the interest of employers to reskill their employees given that it delivers positive returns in about 75 percent of cases; around 43 percent of all reskilling cases result in payoffs in large enterprises, and 30 percent of reskilling cases provide a net benefit to small and medium-sized enterprises.[8]

The Future of Skills and Lifelong Learning report by the Government Office for Science has further unpacked the economic benefits of lifelong learning to both employers and employees. From the perspective of the former, studies have found that upskilling can lead to lower recruitment and training costs, enhance the employer’s reputation as an ‘employer of choice’, and increase capacity for innovation and the adoption of emerging technologies. According to a 2016 survey, 64 percent of 4,239 employers noticed an improvement in the employees’ abilities to perform and complete job tasks, and a further 42 percent saw an improvement in employees abilities to master different technologies. A further economic incentive is that external hires are on average 20 percent more costly compared to reskilling workers, and it may also avoid costly onboarding processes given that reskilled workers already have significant workplace knowledge and networks.[9]

Given the wage benefits associated with higher levels of education, this suggests that the returns on learning are significant and greatly beneficial to the employee. At the age of 29, men who enrolled in higher education typically earn 25 percent more than a non-graduate counterpart, while women attending HE usually earn 50 percent more.[10] This trend continues in Further Education with level 4-5 qualifications yielding higher earnings compared to level 3 qualifications.

Yet, despite such positive reasons for upskilling and lifelong learning, the skills gap remains, and the uptake on level 4-5 qualifications in particular remains alarmingly low in England. Only 10% of adults aged 18-65 hold qualifications at these levels, compared to 20% in Germany and 34% in Canada.[11] We can also see how the number of adult learners in Further Education has more than halved since 2005, falling from 4 million to less than 2 million in 2020.

This trend is connected to a variety of causes[12], but one noticeable and often-cited reason is that the current funding structure fails to support those “who are not 18 taking a traditional undergraduate degree.”[13] As a response to this, the Government has sought to reform the funding system by introducing the Lifelong Loan Entitlement from 2025. Under this, a person can apply for a loan for full courses at levels 4 to 6 and modules and high-value technical courses at levels 4 to 5. Those who take in-person courses can also access a maintenance loan to cover the cost of living expenditure.[14] While the Chief Executive of Universities UK, Vivienne Stern, applauds this initiative as a “promising answer” to the challenges of the high demand for skilled professionals and for sending positive policy signals, some research indicates that such a loan yields no statistically significant impact on a persons intention to reskill and that many are concerned about taking on more debt later in life.[15]

Democratic Benefits of Lifelong Learning

While the economic benefits of incentivising lifelong learning should not be underestimated, we should not lose sight of how adult learning can benefit democracy by strengthening civic participation. It does so by producing the economic preconditions for civic participation, expanding networks and providing access to new communities, making civic participation more desirable, and generating related values and attitudes.[16] It has been shown to increase community involvement, increase feelings of empowerment and levels of political participation, and further decrease crime and antisocial behaviour.[17]

Given the important benefits of LLL for society, some have argued that it should make us broaden the right to education and not consider such a right limited to the early years of life. As a UNESCO report concluded, we need to create a more expansive notion of the right to education. [18] There is, thus, an important “moral argument” to consider for lifelong learning.[19] A sheer focus on economic returns overlooks other important benefits, such as improvements in personal well-being and health which may produce long-term benefits for civic participation and social cohesion. Lifelong learning is important for mitigating social exclusion, an insight reflected by the fact that the challenges of social exclusion are placed at the centre of the majority of EU lifelong learning policies.[20]

We need a holistic approach to lifelong learning that acknowledges the important benefits to a vibrant economy, but also the significance for the possibility of enhancing social inclusion and a cohesive democracy.

Policy Recommendations

• The fear of further debt acts as a major disincentive to people enrolling in education. As recommended by the Lifelong Learning Institute, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement should be developed into a co-investment involving contributions from learners, businesses, and government, thus offsetting the burden of those seeking to reskill.[21]
• As noted by the think tank ResPublica, many people are unaware of educational options beyond that of university degrees, including vocational education and training.[22] This is partly due to the current structure of career services, which tends to assume the route towards higher education degrees as a default option. Instead, such services need to promote the full range of options, including technical education and vocational training at levels 4 and 5.
• The United Kingdom faces regional skills shortages. It has been shown that multiple sectors of the North East struggle “to fill labour-intensive and high- and medium-skilled roles.”[23] Other notable areas of the UK facing this challenge are Cornwall, Lancashire, Dorset and Somerset, East Wales, and Shropshire.[24] Hence, policy interventions aimed at reskilling the workforce to meet current and future labour market challenges need to be place-specific, by encouraging educational institutions and training providers to develop local skills improvement programmes.