Introduction

The notion of a society based on the principles of lifelong learning has achieved a remarkable consensus among policy makers and practitioners across the European Union. Although the concept is not new, in recent years it has been promoted with increasing urgency in government and educational circles. The reasons are due to a complex interplay of economic, technological and demographic pressures. Economic restructuring has led to a reconfiguration of industries, sectors and workplaces, leaving those with outdated or inadequate skills vulnerable to extended periods of unemployment. The speed of technological change, coupled with the rapid advances in technological know-how in less developed economies, has put enormous pressures on employers and states to ensure that their workers have the skills needed to compete in a global, information-led economy. Meanwhile, the ageing of the European population has led to predictions of major skills shortages and intolerable welfare burdens, leading to a broad agreement over the need to increase employment rates for older people and to extend their working lives.

The impact of these factors is an unprecedented refocus on learning in the information-led economy, and in the way training is designed, delivered and financed. There has been a proliferation of reports and policy statements that examine the rhetoric of lifelong learning and its implementation. More specifically, there has been an increasing interest in the way training opportunities are accessed by different age groups. In an era of unrelenting change, it is a paradox that the more years we spend in the workplace, on average the fewer formal, paper-based qualifications we have, relative to younger cohorts. Equally, the older we are, the less likely we are to engage in a recent period of vocational training. Government and expert reports have recommended ‘age-friendly’ approaches to learning provision for many years, but these have been based on voluntary guidance and codes of best practice. The age discrimination in employment law, implemented in the UK in 2006, heralds a more punitive, regulatory approach to unfair, age-based employment decisions, including those relating to vocational training.