About the lecture

While adult education has a long history in Britain going back to the Workers Education Association of the 19th century, the term ‘lifelong learning’ does not extend much further back than the 1970s. This talk considered the socio-economic and technological changes that lay behind the idea of cradle to grave learning in a global context and the life enhancing benefits to be expected. The British birth cohort studies chart people’s changing lives since the second world-war, display the benefits to be gained from learning and reveal a growing learning divide. What halted lifelong learning’s progress? Where does it go next?

The event was chaired by Professor John Gray.