Policy paper on life-long learning
1. Introduction
This policy paper addresses some key issues for the social dialogue concerning lifelong learning at the local, regional, national and European levels. It deals with the important connections between lifelong learning and employment, public service restructuring and equal opportunities.
The paper addresses the role of lifelong learning for the public service unions in the following areas:
- Lifelong learning and the European context
- Collective bargaining and the social dialogue
- The challenge of quality public services
- Employment and employability
- Working time and learning time
- Work organisation and learning organisations
- Equal opportunities
- Enlargement
- Widening participation in learning and opening up access to all
- Innovation in teaching and learning and valuing skills
- Resources, rights and responsibilities
- Trade union education and training
- Recommendations
Lifelong learning encompasses formal and informal learning at all stages in an individual’s life course. Lifelong learning must be seen in the widest possible sense as contributing to:
- Economic and employment growth, including job creation, employability, and economic development particularly within the context of the Information Society.
- High quality, citizen orientated, accessible and transparent public services.
- New forms of work organisation and working time, linked to a culture of learning.
- Individual learning, capacity and skills.
- Personal development and fulfilment.
- Equal opportunities between women and men.
- Active citizenship, community development and participatory democracy.
- Social inclusion, and social, economic and territorial cohesion
Lifelong learning is an important element of a coordinated collective bargaining strategy in the public services and of the European social model. It is a cornerstone of quality public services, quality work, trade union rights, equality between women and men and a citizen’s Europe. The commitment to lifelong learning is reinforced in the European Public Services Charter , the conclusions of the EPSU 2000 General Assembly , EPSU collective bargaining policy , EPSU Policy on Working Time , EPSU policy on Gender Equality .
EPSU believes that new approaches to learning and new innovations are needed if lifelong learning is able to seriously address unemployment, skills deficits and mismatches in the labour market, competency and skills development, social and regional inequalities, poverty and social exclusion.
The Information Society provides many new opportunities and challenges in the public services. In particular there are many opportunities for transforming public services through e-Government . It is imperative that everyone, whether they be working or not, has access to the skills and knowledge required to participate in the Information Society. It is particularly important that these opportunities are available to older as well as younger workers, women as well as men, skilled as well as unskilled workers. see full text attached
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