Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: resolving the contradiction of lifelong learning

Over the past half century many improvements have been documented in initial continuous education. Initial schooling is now near universal in Britain, staying-on rates for continuing post-compulsory education or training are rising, and high-level qualifications are becoming more prevalent. In terms of participation and qualification the differences between identifiable groups in society, while still large in some respects, are generally getting smaller over time. There may be many reasons for these changes, but at least one factor may be the attention given to extended initial education by policy-makers. Later lifelong learning, by contrast, has received little real attention and has not shown the same improvements. In many respects, adult rates of participation and qualification are getting worse and more unfairly distributed over time. This leads to an apparent contradiction since targeted indicators of education and training are increasing among the adult population. This article shows how the ‘contradiction’ could be resolved by further consideration of a model of the ‘two dimensions of time’.