A Learning Society: The Real Challenge for the 1990s

People and education are the two critical priorities for any society in the 1990s. The first requirement is that people are motivated to learn, the second being that learning should be a lifetime process. Effective education is therefore about encouraging the motivation to learn and providing opportunities to do so,not about teaching. The author examines the implications of this approach; the need for integration between education and training,between the academic and the vocational; the need for educational institutions to change if they are to adopt this philosophy; the need for the structures of work to be organised to provide both wide learning opportunities and the motivation to learn. We are living in a knowledge society, and it is also essential that we live in a learning society.