One in three Europeans take no form of training

Europeans consider lifelong learning to be an important tool for their personal and professional development, and see a gap between what they know and the skills needed to flourish in a "Europe of knowledge".

However, on average, more than a third of European citizens do not currently take part in any form of education or training and one in 10 has no desire to do so, according to a recent Eurobarometer survey on lifelong learning.

Problems of time and money are often cited as obstacles to pursuing lifelong learning.

The main survey findings were published in a European Commission press release earlier this month. The survey was carried out between January 15 and February 28 in the 15 member states, Norway and Iceland. It did not include acceding countries, although the results should be an eye-opener for them too.

The survey is one of the concrete follow-up actions to the November 2001 Commission Communication on "Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality".

Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Education and Culture, was quoted as saying the survey showed that people need to be convinced of the importance of lifelong learning both personally and socially.

The commission press release said the survey found that nine in 10 Europeans think that lifelong learning is important.

Eight in 10 see lifelong learning as pursuing both economic and social goals, helping people to cope with change and labour market demands, take their lives into their own hands and live full and satisfying lives.

There was broad agreement that reading, writing and arithmetic are the most useful skills in all areas of life. At the same time, there was awareness of the need to possess a broader range of skills to flourish in a Europe of knowledge, for example ICT, foreign languages and social and communication skills.

While almost everyone across Europe is confident that they can read, write and do arithmetic, only 58 per cent of respondents said they could use a computer and half of them said they could not use the Internet. Sixty per cent said they could not use foreign languages.

European citizens consider that their learning experiences are most profitable in non-formal contexts, for example doing activities at home, during leisure time, learning informally on the job or in local learning centres/libraries.

Formal learning settings (such as schools, universities and colleges) as a recent and relevant learning context were mentioned by only 17 per cent of respondents. Distance learning channels and learning experience abroad (as part of exchange programmes) are among the least-favoured settings for learning.

On the other hand, the respondents mention formal settings when they think about how to improve or update their professional skills. This is related to the longstanding ideas about where one is supposed to learn, that is, in schools, colleges, training centres, universities, etc. In everyday life, however, people recognise that they learn in a much wider range of contexts.

Under half the respondents in Nordic countries do not take part in education and training, but in Greece and Portugal only two citizens out of ten have done so in the last year. The proportion of those reporting they are simply not interested in learning is especially high in Spain (47 per cent) and in Portugal (50 per cent).

The survey also confirms that those with higher educational and occupational levels are more likely to participate in education and training.

Although people recognise the personal and social benefits of learning, they underline that lack of time due to job and family commitments is an important obstacle. However, individualised and flexible learning arrangements have proved to be effective incentives to learning.

In general, money represents a major obstacle: half of the respondents said that they would pay nothing under any circumstances.

Nevertheless, people are ready to make a financial contribution if they judge the benefit to be an exclusively personal one. They do not see work-related learning as only their responsibility.