Lifelong learning in the workplace? Challenges and issues

There is much scepticism about the concept of lifelong learning within both the educational literature and the literature on work. Certainly, many work arrangements discourage learning, let alone lifelong learning. Nevertheless, there are also work situations in which significant learning occurs. However, even in instances where work arrangements are more favourable for learning, there does not seem to be wide recognition that this is the case. This paper suggests that this reflects the fact that learning is widely misunderstood. The common‐sense view of learning as a product gives many types of learning a bad press, including learning at work and lifelong learning. However, when the process aspects of learning are given due attention, as in the emerging view of learning outlined in this paper, much learning, including informal workplace learning at its best, is accurately described as a form of lifelong learning.