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Learning while working 17

(Unesco, 1997; 2009) seek learning opportunities outside classrooms and
training institutions, in ordinary places where adults interact, such as leisure
clubs, cultural settings, and also the workplace. The fact that we spend a
third of our daytime, and more than thirty years of our lives, in successive
working environments emphasises the significance of the workplace in
making lifelong learning a reality, by stimulating the motivation to learn
and the participation and retention of adults in education and training. We
learn through work tasks, from colleagues and work mentors, through trial
and error, by solving challenges and changing job positions, as well as
through the continuing training that employers may provide. Employers,
trade unions and public authorities have a major responsibility for creating
the conditions in the workplace for workers to continue learning and broaden
their competences. As the policy debate on lifelong learning was gaining
momentum, the social partners committed themselves at European level
to cooperate in developing workforce competences and qualifications as
major aspects of lifelong learning, within the Framework of actions for the
lifelong learning development of competences and qualifications (European
Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) et al., 2002).
The importance of workplace learning has been highlighted by a range
of other, and even earlier, EU policy papers: the Commission’s 2001
Communication Making a European are of lifelong learning a reality; the
2002 Council Resolution on lifelong learning (European Commission, 2001;
Council of the European Union, 2002); and the 2010 Communication A new
impetus for European Cooperation in VET to support the EU 2020 strategy
(European Commission, 2010d). Recently, the European Commission’s
Communication It is never too late to learn recalled the contribution of adult
learning to employability, mobility in the labour market and the acquisition
of key competences which are indispensable for social and labour inclusion
(European Commission, 2006). While the consequences of low basic skills
extend over individuals and communities, adult learning for both professional
and personal purposes is also crucial for the medium and high-skilled people
who are also required to keep developing their competences. The 2007 Action
plan on adult learning It is always a good time to learn prompted Member
States to improve adult learning opportunities for all and raise skill levels of the
workforce in general; particular emphasis was given to the low skilled and the
older members of the population, given that participation in learning decreases
after the age of 34 (Cedefop, 2004a; Eurofound, 2007a). At a time when the
average working age of the population is rising across Europe, there needs
to be a parallel increase in adult learning provision for older workers.