There is another, perhaps more precise, way of examining the four main lifelong learning trajectories discussed in Chapters Four and Five. They can be broken down into two components. The first refers to participation in education and training immediately after passing the compulsory schoolleaving age. The second comprises those forms of participation that occur later in individuals’ lives as adults (Gorard et al, 1998c).

In terms of our learning trajectories, therefore, a non-participant clearly registers neither component; a transitional learner only the first; a delayed learner only the second; while a lifelong learner has both.

In initial support for this model, it is striking that the number of episodes of participation in adult learning, the number of years spent in education and training, and the percentage of each respondent's life spent in education and training for the lifelong learners is almost the exact sum of those for the delayed and transitional learners (Table 6.1). It is as though a lifelong learner is a combination of a transitional and a delayed learner.

By dividing the respondents into two equal-sized age cohorts, it is also possible to gain some indications of changes over time in the social determinants of these two components of participation, as the two cohorts reflect patterns of participation at different historical periods (see Gorard et al, 1999a). Table 6.2 shows that the major change in terms of patterns of participation over time has been a large increase in transitional participation (immediately after passing the official school-leaving age). There has not been an equivalent change in later-life participation (participation after a break from education until individuals are at least 21 years of age). In fact, the actual frequency of later learning has fallen slightly over time. This latter pattern is not due simply to the fact that the younger cohorts have had less time to participate in education and training and thus to develop ‘fully adult’ trajectories. This can be seen from the fact that the average age at which all episodes of later-life participation occur falls within the age range of the younger cohort.

The analysis presented in this chapter is based on these two distinct ‘dimensions’ of change over time. It considers variation over the life of each individual, and variation between age cohorts over historical time.