Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 >Chapter8 Section2.1

Lifelong learning is an important policy agenda for any country. However, countries that are most like Japan in actively promoting lifelong learning as the core of educational reform are the U.K. and the Republic of Korea.

  In the U.K., the Labour government published in February 1998 a policy document entitled The Learning Age - A Renaissance for a New Britain. This document makes proposals for continuing education after compulsory education and expanding learning opportunities through higher education and adult education, from the viewpoint of "Learning is the key to prosperity - for each of us as individuals, as well as for the nation as a whole."

  In the Republic of Korea, too, the presidential commission reported in May 1995 the Proposals of Educational Reform for the Establishment of the New Educational System. The report's objective was set at "the development of infrastructure for an open learning society and lifelong learning society" with the proposed introduction of a Credit Bank System, which recognizes various learning experiences as credits and awards academic degrees and qualifications through their accumulation, and the establishment of The National Multi-media Center for Education, which provides information and supports distance education. The national government has since then realized these proposals.

  For many countries, including these mentioned above, how to guarantee learning opportunities for adults who have left school is an important agenda. In Western countries, emphasis is more on vocational education and training to foster workers with sophisticated skills and as countermeasures against unemployment, although institutions like the U.K.'s Adult Education Centre and Germany's Volkschochschule (adults' university) do provide learning opportunities for hobbies and fine-culture type subjects. Community colleges in the U.S., while providing courses in general education, have come to play important roles in vocational education in recent years. In addition, individual states are expanding the provision of education and training for the unemployed. France's Second Chance Schools, which provide education to upper secondary school dropouts, are also measures of this type. The lifelong learning policy of the U.K., too, is being implemented with the clear objective of developing a workforce that can contribute to the improvement of international competitiveness.

  The promotion of distance education utilizing IT technology is attracting much attention in relation to the recent lifelong learning policy. In Japan, as a part of the plan for improving the careers of one million employed adults, which constitutes a part of higher educational reform, e-Universities and satellite campuses are being proposed. In the U.K., the government announced an "e-University" plan in February 2000 and is currently carrying it out. This is a scheme for existing universities to distribute study programs through the Internet, making it possible to obtain degrees from British universities anywhere in the country as well as abroad. The concept of an Internet university such as this is increasing in the U.S., France and Germany. It is also being operated on an experimental basis in China, which is lagging behind in the development of normal conventional universities.