Education Policy can Make or Break Lifelong Learning

Many adults were told this story as a child: Work hard at school, pick a job, stay in it, retire. Learning belonged at the beginning of life. What came after was just execution. But those days are completely over. Lifelong learning has become the standard.

Careers branch, stall, restart. Technology rewrites job descriptions faster than curricula change. Life expectancy stretches, while the half-life of skills shrinks. In this world, education has become the operating system you need running, updating and rebooting, for as long as you live.

Yet, according to the OECD’s new “Education Policy Outlook 2025” report, our systems still behave as if learning is mostly something young people do in classrooms. Participation in education and training after initial schooling has barely moved in a decade. Foundational skills are falling. Older workers train the least, even as they are asked to work longer. It seems lifelong learning is failing.

The report concludes that lifelong learning is failing because systems do not consistently give people the will, the skills and the means to keep learning at the moments when it matters most.

To clearly demonstrate this, the authors in the report zoom in on four critical turning points to achieve lifelong learning: early childhood, early to mid-adolescence, mid-career, and the years just before retirement. And I will add a fifth one as well, namely learning during retirement. Let’s see where there are opportunties.

Turning point 1 in lifelong learning: Early childhood

The story of lifelong learning begins long before school tests, job interviews or CVs.

Between birth and age six, children develop curiosity, self-regulation and the first taste of agency: the sense that they can explore, try, fail and try again. Neuroscience and comparative data now point in the same direction: those early dispositions drive later literacy, numeracy and persistence far beyond the first years.

The report shows that in OECD countries around 85% of children aged three to five attend early childhood education, but only 29% of children aged zero to two do. Disadvantaged children are still less likely to access high-quality provision.

Fifteen-year-olds who attended at least one year of pre-primary education score clearly higher in PISA mathematics than peers who never went, even after you adjust for socio-economic background. The more years in pre-primary, the larger the gap.

But the real stakes go beyond test scores. Early childhood settings teach children how to be learners. Play-based activities train negotiation, attention, frustration tolerance. Educators and parents model whether mistakes are shameful or simply part of learning.

Here, the “will” for lifelong learning is born. The report describes this first turning point as a triple challenge:

• Nurture dispositions such as curiosity, persistence and a growth mindset, not just early literacy drills.
• Invest in quality, from well-trained staff to coherent curriculum frameworks that balance play and guided learning.
• Strengthen the home learning environment, especially for families under economic or social pressure, through outreach, coaching and community services.

Digital tools already enter this space. Toddlers swipe before they can talk. The OECD report warns that many “educational” apps lack any proven pedagogical value. Screens can support learning when adults curate and mediate, but they can also crowd out real-world exploration, sleep and social interaction. The policy question is how adults design environments where technology complements, rather than replaces, human relationships.

Turning point 2 in lifelong learning: Adolescence and the risk of disengagement

If early childhood is about raw potential, early to mid-adolescence is about direction.

Between roughly 10 and 16, young people assemble identity, values and aspirations. In most OECD countries, these years also mark the end of compulsory schooling. Systems will not have such reliable access to the full cohort again.

The data here are stark. PISA 2022 shows that only about 55% of 15-year-olds across the OECD reach minimum proficiency in reading, mathematics and science, down from 69% in 2015. A separate OECD survey on social and emotional skills finds that 15-year-olds score lower than 10-year-olds in almost every socio-emotional domain, with drops in achievement motivation, trust and energy.

Motivation and trust dip the most between childhood and mid-teens. This is the moment when you would want learners to lean into challenge, ask hard questions and explore future paths. Instead, many lose confidence in their ability to learn.

At the same time, their environment becomes more complex. Primary school’s single-teacher structure gives way to subject specialists, exams, tracking and selection. Peer influence intensifies. Digital life moves centre stage: social media, algorithmic feeds, online games.

The report points out that while a moderate amount of learning time on digital devices can support engagement, PISA data associate longer daily use with lower mathematics performance in many systems. On average, students report about two hours of digital learning use per school day. Beyond the first hour, scores start dropping, by around two points per extra hour in 21 OECD systems.

The core problem is the lack of guidance and metacognitive skills. Many students feel confident searching for information online; far fewer feel confident judging which information to trust. Without critical digital literacy, the “skills” pillar of lifelong learning crumbles in a world flooded with data and misinformation.

The OECD report makes the following recommendations:

• Make student agency explicit in curricula. Give adolescents real decisions over projects, pathways and pacing.
• Embed social and emotional learning in everyday lessons. Skills like self-regulation, collaboration and resilience need structured practice.
• Upgrade teacher support. Professional development must move beyond one-off workshops to sustained, practice-based learning communities that help teachers integrate formative assessment, inclusive pedagogy and purposeful digital tools.
• Strengthen career guidance and transitions. Adolescents need repeated, high-quality encounters with work, mentors and diverse study options, especially those from marginalized groups.

This phase is the last point where systems can reliably reach everyone. Fail here, and early inequalities harden into lifelong gaps in confidence, competence and opportunity.

Turning point 3 in lifelong learning: The mid-career squeeze

Fast-forward twenty years. You are in your late thirties or early forties. Workload has grown. Care responsibilities peak. Mortgage, children, aging parents – all need time and money. Yet this is exactly when labour markets push you to upskill or reskill.

The OECD calls this third turning point in lifelong learning “mid-career”, roughly ages 35 to 44. It is both a risk zone and a chance for reinvention.

Data from the Survey of Adult Skills show that proficiency in literacy, numeracy and adaptive problem-solving peaks in the late twenties and early thirties, then declines across subsequent age bands. There is a clear downward slope from 25–34 to 35–44, then further down to 55–65. Adult learning participation follows the same direction: it stagnates for 25–65-year-olds and declines for 35–55-year-olds. Only about 43% of adults in that band report any participation in formal or non-formal education in the previous year.

Meanwhile, job content mutates. Automation and AI (will) reshape tasks, often profoundly. The green transition creates new technical demands. One in four workers is over-qualified or over-skilled for their job; about one in ten is under-qualified or under-skilled; more than one-third work in a field unrelated to their formal qualification. The mismatch results in a large share of talent that is either underused or misaligned.

For mid-career adults, the “will” to learn often collides with a simple question: who pays, who certifies, and who takes the risk?

The report shows several levers:

• Modular and stackable learning. Short courses, micro-credentials and blended programmes that fit around irregular schedules give adults a way to accumulate recognised skills without stepping out of work for full degrees.
• Recognition of prior learning. Formal systems that validate skills gained through work, volunteering or informal learning can shorten training time and make it worth engaging. In Estonia adults can convert workplace experience into credits within the formal system.
• Financial and time entitlements. Paid training leave, learning vouchers, tax credits and individual learning accounts move the “means” of learning closer to the learner, instead of leaving everything to employers’ goodwill.
• Shared responsibility models. Public employment services, employers, unions and training providers can co-fund and co-design reskilling pathways, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that lack in-house training departments.

Digitalization plays a double role here. Online and hybrid courses widen access and allow personalized pacing. AI-driven platforms can recommend learning paths and adapt content to learner profiles. But without strong quality assurance and transparent credentials, adults risk wasting scarce time on courses that do not translate into better jobs or recognized skills.

The mid-career message is blunt: learning opportunities must be flexible, portable and trusted. Otherwise, the people who most need reskilling will stay away.

Turning point 4 in lifelong learning: Approaching retirement in ageing societies

The fourth turning point to enable lifelong learning sits where education policy often looks away: the years before retirement, roughly 55 to 65.

This generation carries decades of tacit knowledge. Yet participation in adult learning is lowest here. The report notes that only about 26% of 55–65-year-olds say they took part in any job-related learning over the past year. Their literacy and numeracy scores are also the lowest among working-age adults, and they make up the largest share of low performers.

At the same time, demographic ageing pushes governments to extend working lives. Without targeted learning opportunities, older workers face a triple threat: skills obsolescence, labour-market exit and social isolation.

The OECD considers this phase to be a chance to re-anchor purpose and contribution and reach a full cycle of lifelong learning:

• Will: Policies that explicitly value experience, such as mentoring schemes or inter-generational projects, tell older adults that their knowledge matters and is needed.
• Skills: Tailored upskilling in digital tools, new procedures and soft skills helps older workers adapt to reorganised workplaces and service models.
• Means: Age-friendly workplaces, flexible hours, combined health-education programs and community-based learning centers create environments where learning feels realistic rather than aspirational.

The report points to examples where employment policies, community education and social services align. Programs in China, for instance, build “universities for older adults” connected to local communities. In the United States, employment initiatives such as the Senior Community Service Employment Program link training with paid community work, creating both income and social ties.

In this stage, the goal of lifelong learning is not just productivity. It is also health, dignity and connection. Learning helps older adults navigate digitalised public services, manage finances, engage in civic life and support younger generations. Ignoring this turning point wastes human capital and accelerates exclusion.

Turning point 5 in lifelong learning: Retirement

Although not available in the report, I would propose a 5th turning point in lifelong learning, namely retirement. Retirement used to mean a clean break. Work stopped, income shifted to pensions, and the idea of “lifelong learning” faded from the picture. But that script no longer fits aging societies.

Life expectancy at 65 has risen by around three years over the last two decades in OECD countries. More people in their late sixties and early seventies still work, volunteer or provide care, with labour-force participation among 65–69-year-olds around 27% in 2018, up from under a quarter in 2008. At the same time, their exposure to structured learning stays low.

This is for me the fifth step in a genuine lifelong learning system. After the pre-retirement years covered in the fourth turning point, societies now face a task they have mostly postponed: treating retirement as a “third age” of learning.

Many older adults keep a foothold in the labour market through part-time jobs, consultancy or seasonal work. Others take on unpaid but demanding roles: looking after grandchildren, supporting frail partners, volunteering in communities, or managing complex health and financial decisions. These roles need current skills.

Studies on Universities of the Third Age and senior university programs show that sustained participation in courses improves psychological well-being, supports cognition and reduces social isolation. Learners in these programs often describe education less as a hobby and more as infrastructure for staying mentally sharp, socially embedded and confident online.

You can see the stakes in three domains:

• Democratic life. Access to trustworthy information, basic statistics and critical digital literacy influence how retirees navigate political messages, misinformation and participation in civic organisations.
• Everyday resilience. Understanding digital banking, e-government portals, health records and insurance terms now requires continuous learning, especially when interfaces change and new threats like online fraud emerge.
• Intergenerational support. Grandparents who help with schoolwork or language learning act as informal educators. Their own comfort with learning and technology shapes how they support younger family members.

Ignoring this step leaves a growing share of the population to face rapid change with outdated skills and shrinking social networks.

What lifelong learning in retirement actually looks like

Learning in retirement rarely fits a traditional classroom model. It happens in looser, more networked ways:

• Third age universities and senior colleges. The University of the Third Age (U3A) movement, which started in Europe and now spans many countries, offers non-credit courses run largely by and for older adults. Formats range from lecture series and small seminars to walking groups and art circles. Some U3As attach themselves to formal universities; others operate as independent associations.
• Senior universities inside public institutions. Programmes like the Senior University at the University of Zurich show how large universities can carve out dedicated spaces for older learners, combining academic lectures with social events and project work.
• Community and cultural learning. Libraries, museums, local NGOs and faith-based groups run digital skills workshops, language cafés, memory-writing courses and citizen science projects that double as learning and social support.
• Digital and blended formats. Massive open online courses, podcast-based learning, online lecture series and hybrid workshops lower physical barriers. When platforms design interfaces with larger fonts, clear navigation and human help options, older adults can use them effectively.

A key lesson from research on U3A learners: most seniors do not return to education solely for knowledge. They cite a mix of curiosity, the need for structure in newly flexible days, and the desire for social contacts that go beyond family. That mix should guide policy and design.

Designing “will, skills and means” for the third age

Using the familiar lens of will, skills and means makes it easier to see where current systems fall short in retirement.

• Will, keep purpose and curiosity alive
  • Frame senior education publicly as contribution, not charity: mentoring, volunteering, co-teaching and intergenerational projects where older adults share experience and also learn new tools.
  • Promote positive stories of late-life learning, from retirees who earn micro-credentials in climate literacy to seniors who co-design local digital services. These narratives counter the idea that learning belongs only to the young.
• Skills, focus on what protects autonomy
  • Prioritise digital confidence: online banking, secure messaging, health portals, social media literacy and tools for creative expression.
  • Add content on financial literacy, health self-management and legal basics that many retirees must handle for the first time.
  • Keep cognitive challenge high, not just entertainment. Languages, history, coding, philosophy or advanced sciences all work as long as teaching respects starting levels and pacing.
• Means, remove concrete barriers
  • Cost: offer low-fee or free programmes financed through social, education or health budgets, because late-life learning reduces other public costs over time.
  • Access: place courses in neighbourhood spaces, provide transport support where possible, and ensure physical accessibility.
  • Design: use larger print, clearer layouts, hearing-loop systems and captioned recordings as default features, not add-ons.
  • Recognition: offer simple certificates or badges where useful, especially when seniors use learning as a bridge back into part-time work or structured volunteering.

Evidence from adult learning trends shows that older adults often cite lack of suitable courses, limited information and health constraints as main barriers, rather than lack of interest. Step 5 therefore asks governments to fix structures, not blame motivation.

The hidden architecture of lifelong learning is based on will, skills and means

The table below condenses the story of lifelong learning into five key turning points. It shows how early childhood access, adolescent skills, mid-career training, and late-career learning all drop in and out of focus across the lifespan. Now let is use this quick snapshot to find opportunities.

“Lifelong learning at a glance,” five key stages in one table

Life stage / turning point	Indicator	Average value / pattern	What it shows
Step 1, Early childhood (0–5)	Children enrolled in early childhood education and care (ECEC)	Around 85% of 3–5-year-olds attend early education, but only ≈29% of 0–2-year-olds do	Systems invest in the years just before school, but support is still patchy in the very first years, especially for disadvantaged families.
Step 2, Adolescence (around 15)	Share of 15-year-olds at minimum proficiency in reading, maths and science (PISA)	Dropped from ≈69% (2015) to ≈55% (2022) across OECD countries	A growing share of teenagers leaves compulsory schooling without core skills, weakening their future learning capacity.
Step 3, Mid-career (35–44)	Participation in formal and non-formal job-related adult learning in past 12 months	Around 4 in 10 adults (≈43%) report any job-related learning	The phase with intense change at work collides with low and uneven training participation, especially for those with lower skills.
Step 4, Pre-retirement (55–65)	Job-related adult learning participation	Around 1 in 4 adults (≈26%) take part in job-related learning; they are also over-represented among low performers in basic skills	Just before retirement, training drops while job demands and digitalisation remain high, heightening risks of exclusion and early exit from work.
Step 5, Retirement / third age (60+)	Broad adult learning participation (formal, non-formal, informal)	In Europe, participation falls to roughly ≈30% of 60–65-year-olds, and only a small share pursue formal, qualification-oriented study	In ageing societies, most retirees still learn informally, but structured offers remain scarce. Without targeted design, the “lifelong” in lifelong learning stops at the retirement threshold.

Across these five lifelong learning phases, you can use a simple but demanding lens: will, skills, means.

• Will is motivation, agency, socio-emotional strength, the belief that effort changes outcomes.
• Skills are the cognitive, transversal and digital tools that let people learn new things, understand systems and adapt.
• Means are the practical enablers: time, money, infrastructure, recognition, guidance, networks.

Most countries have policies touching each of these pillars to enable lifelong learning, but they often act in isolation. A curriculum may encourage critical thinking, but exams reward memorization. Adult learning vouchers may exist, but information and guidance remain scarce. Digital platforms may flourish, yet quality control lags.

The Education Policy Outlook argues that the real work to achieve lifelong learning lies in alignment:

• Align incentives so that individuals, institutions and employers all gain when learning continues – through promotion rules, wage structures, funding formulas, social benefits.
• Align resources so that support follows the learner across institutions and life stages rather than stopping at institutional boundaries.
• Align innovation so that digital tools, micro-credentials and recognition systems reinforce each other instead of creating new fragmentation.

At its core, the implementation of a true lifelong learning policy is basically a political choice. Do governments treat lifelong learning as an optional add-on, or as central infrastructure for economic resilience, social cohesion and democratic stability?

What a real lifelong learning system looks like

The report itself does not pretend there is a single model to achieve lifelong learning. Countries vary in institutions, labour markets and demographics. But through its 230-plus policy examples, the report does give you a sense of what a serious lifelong learning architecture would include:

1. A strong early-years foundation
   • Universal or near-universal access to quality early childhood education and care.
   • Well-trained staff, time for reflection, and coherent curricula that put play, socio-emotional skills and curiosity at the centre.
   • Structured support for parents, especially in disadvantaged communities, turning the home into a powerful learning environment.
2. Adolescence that builds both competence and agency
   • Curricula that integrate foundational skills, transversal competences and digital literacy.
   • School cultures that treat students as partners in learning, not passive recipients.
   • Embedded social and emotional learning, rather than add-on programmes.
   • Robust guidance systems that connect students to labour-market realities and diverse pathways.
3. Adult learning that fits real lives
   • Flexible, modular learning offers with clear, portable credentials.
   • Recognition of prior learning to avoid redundant training and honour experience.
   • Shared financing models: public funds, employer contributions and individual entitlements combined.
   • Digital platforms that support personalised learning, underpinned by strong quality assurance.
4. Late-career learning with purpose
   • Age-inclusive HR policies, combining mentoring roles, flexible work and targeted training.
   • Community-based and online opportunities that link learning with social engagement and health.
   • Integrated strategies that connect labour, health, social and education policies for older adults.

None of this is futuristic. Many elements already exist in individual countries. The most important problem is fragmentation – pilots without scale, strategies without budgets, reforms without long-term stability.

We used to learn to do our work, now lifelong learning is the work

In his editorial at the front of the report, Andreas Schleicher writes that in the modern world “we used to learn to do our work, now learning is the work”.

That line indeed captures the real shift in lifelong learning. Early childhood programs build curiosity. Adolescence shapes identity and agency. Mid-career learning maintains employability. Pre-retirement training prolongs participation in work. Step 5 which I added, completes the loop.

When technology can retrieve facts, translate languages and generate text on demand, the premium moves to something else: the capacity to keep learning, to connect dots across domains, to stay calm and curious when everything changes again.

Education systems that take this seriously will treat lifelong learning as a through-line from birth to old age. They will track the five turning points and measure whether people have the will, skills and means to keep going, and adjust policy accordingly.

For individuals, the message is sober but still empowering. You cannot control macro trends, but you can demand institutions that respect your need to learn at every stage, rather than only at the beginning.

For policymakers, the challenge is sharper. The data in “Education Policy Outlook 2025” leave little room for complacency. Skills are sliding. Participation is flat. Digital promise remains underused.

The next decade will show whether governments are willing to move from scattered initiatives to a genuine lifelong-learning system – one that meets people at each critical moment and makes continuous learning the new normal.

Lifelong learning FAQ

1. What are the five steps of lifelong learning?

The five steps follow the major transitions in a typical life course:

1. Early childhood (0–5) – building curiosity, basic self-regulation and the first learning habits.
2. Adolescence (10–16) – consolidating core skills, identity and agency before leaving compulsory schooling.
3. Mid-career (35–44) – updating skills while juggling work, family and financial pressure.
4. Pre-retirement (55–65) – staying employable and adaptable as work changes and health starts to matter more.
5. Retirement / “third age” (60+) – using learning to stay autonomous, connected and able to contribute in ageing societies.

Together they describe where systems either support or lose people if they want real lifelong learning, not just slogans.

2. Why does early childhood matter so much for lifelong learning?

Early childhood education and care sets the tone for everything that follows. High-quality early childhood education:

• Nurtures curiosity, persistence and play-based problem-solving.
• Teaches children that mistakes are part of learning, not a reason to stop.
• Helps parents create a richer home learning environment.

If children enter school already discouraged or behind on basic language and self-control, every later phase of lifelong learning becomes harder. Early childhood policy is the first stress test of a country’s lifelong learning system.

3. How does adolescence shape future attitudes to learning?

Adolescence is the last moment when almost all young people still sit inside the same system. Here, schools:

• Lock in or weaken foundational skills like reading, maths and basic science.
• Shape self-belief, motivation and willingness to tackle hard tasks.
• Expose students (or not) to diverse careers, role models and pathways.

If teenagers leave compulsory school with weak basic skills and low confidence, they are more likely to avoid further education and training. Adolescence decides whether “learning” feels like a door that stays open or a door that shut behind them at 16.

4. What makes mid-career such a difficult phase for adult learning?

Mid-career workers stand at the centre of labour-market change but have the least spare time and headspace. Common barriers include:

• Time pressure from work and caring responsibilities.
• Fragmented offers that do not lead to recognised credentials.
• Cost and risk, especially when training takes place outside working hours.
• Weak recognition of prior learning, which forces adults to repeat what they already know.

Mid-career reskilling programs need modular courses, clear micro-credentials, paid study time and support from employers. Without that, many workers postpone learning until it is too late.

5. Why is pre-retirement learning (55–65) critical in aging societies?

The decade before retirement often decides who can stay in decent work and who gets pushed out. At this stage:

• Job content shifts towards digital tools, new procedures and customer-facing tasks.
• Health and energy start to matter more for employability.
• Many older workers carry deep experience but outdated formal qualifications.

Targeted training in digital skills, updated procedures, mentoring roles and health-related adaptations keeps older workers in the game and protects their income. Ignoring this step accelerates early retirement and labour-market exit.

6. What is Step 5, “Retirement in ageing societies”?

In Step 5 I treat retirement as a new learning phase, not a full stop. In ageing societies, people can spend 20–30 years in some form of retirement. During this “third age”:

• They navigate digital banking, e-government and telehealth.
• They support children and grandchildren with homework and childcare.
• They join community groups, civic projects or part-time work.

Structured learning for retirees – third age universities, senior colleges, community courses, online classes – helps them stay autonomous, socially connected and able to contribute. Late-life learning is therefore part of social and health policy, not just a cultural extra.

7. What kinds of learning make sense in retirement?

Effective late-life learning focuses on skills that protect independence and support contribution:

• Digital confidence – secure use of smartphones, banking apps, health portals, social media and video calls.
• Financial literacy – pensions, savings, fraud awareness and basic tax rules.
• Health and care literacy – understanding diagnoses, treatment options and care systems.
• Cognitive and creative challenge – languages, history, arts, philosophy, coding or citizen-science projects.

Courses work best when they combine content with social contact: discussion, group tasks and intergenerational projects. Many retirees join for the people and stay for the learning.

8. How does digitalization affect all five steps of lifelong learning?

Digitalisation changes both what people need to learn and how they can learn:

• Early childhood – screens must support, not replace, real-world play and interaction. Adults need guidance on quality digital content.
• Adolescence – critical digital literacy (search, verification, online behaviour) becomes a core basic skill.
• Mid-career and pre-retirement – online and hybrid formats allow flexible upskilling but only work when credentials are trusted and courses are well designed.
• Retirement – digital inclusion training keeps older adults connected to services, family and democratic life.

Policy must match wide access to devices with strong digital skills programs and robust quality assurance for online learning offers.

9. What can employers do within this five-step model?

Employers play a central role from mid-career onwards. They can:

• Offer paid training time and integrate learning into working hours.
• Co-design modular courses with training providers, aligned to real job changes.
• Use mentoring schemes where older workers pass on tacit knowledge while learning new tools.
• Support gradual retirement, combining part-time work, learning and mentoring instead of a sudden cut-off.

When employers treat learning as part of the job rather than a private hobby, participation rises and skills stay closer to what the organization needs.

10. What does a truly lifelong-learning system look like in practice?

A real lifelong-learning system does three things across all five steps:

1. Builds will – people expect to keep learning and feel they can succeed at it at any age.
2. Builds skills – every phase strengthens core and transversal skills, not just narrow technical ones.
3. Provides means – time, money, guidance, recognition and nearby offers are in place for each group.

Policies link early childhood, schools, higher education, adult learning, labour-market services, health and social care. Learning becomes part of how a country handles technological change, aging, climate transition and democratic resilience.

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