In the past couple of days, lifelong learning has been front and centre of the general election, with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats announcing eye-catching policies, backed up by the promise of significant additional investment.

It’s both very welcome and not before time. While it has long been overlooked and underfunded, lifelong learning has never been more important. In the coming years, we will see a profound impact on our economy both from automation and the need to decarbonise. This will lead to significant change in the labour market, and a transformation in the demand for skills. If we are to ensure that adults are not left behind by this change, and that we can seize opportunities in the future, we will need to boost adult participation in lifelong learning.

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However, while access to lifelong learning is becoming ever more important, participation has fallen to a record low. The Learning and Work Institute’s adult participation survey shows that the number of adults taking part in learning has fallen to a record low. Access to learning is also deeply unequal; the adults who could most benefit, including those with lower levels of qualifications, those who left education at a young age, and those in low socioeconomic groups, are the least likely to take part. Somewhat perversely, employers are more likely to invest in the skills of their already highly skilled workers than to offer training to workers with low or no qualifications. This is both an economic imperative, and an issue of social justice.

If we are to reverse this decline in participation, and eliminate these stark inequalities, we need to think about how we tackle the barriers to learning.

Promoting adult education

One of the most eye-catching elements of Labour’s proposals for lifelong learning was a right to paid time off for education and training. That’s because when it comes to adult participation in education, time matters.

Year after year, our adult participation survey shows that one of the biggest reported barriers to participation is not the direct cost of courses – it’s time. We all leave busy lives, and it can be difficult to find the time to take part in learning alongside work and family commitments.

Workers do have the right to request part-time working for education and training. But this right is only for training that could help a worker do their current job better, and employers can simply reject requests. Most importantly, even if the employer does accept, there is no obligation for them to provide paid leave. For workers who could most benefit –  time-poor, low-paid workers who lack basic skills or qualifications – the right is practically useless.

If we are to put lifelong learning at the heart of an agenda for economic and social renewal, we need to be much more ambitious.

Ambition for lifelong learning 

There are some examples we could look to. In Belgium, workers have a right to Paid Educational Leave. Designed in order to boost the skills of the workforce, the scheme allows full-time employees in the private sector to take paid leave for a range of training courses. The worker chooses the course, and needs only to provide their employer with proof of enrolment with sufficient notice. Crucially, the worker is entitled to receive their usual wages, up to a maximum of €2,871 (£2,450) a month. In order to minimise the short-term negative impact on employers, they are able to claim back some of the cost of this pay from government.

We should look at a similar system of "learner leave" in the UK. Building on the current right to request part-time working, an earned entitlement to paid leave for education could have a transformative impact.

There would be a number of policy choices in designing such a scheme. In order to limit the cost to employers, government could cover most or all of the wages of any workers taking learner leave, in a similar way as costs of statutory maternity pay are reimbursed. As with statutory maternity leave, there could be a higher rate of reimbursement for SMEs, alongside other safeguards, in recognition of the greater potential impact of a period of staff absence. In order to limit the cost to the state, the amount a worker could claim in pay could be capped, perhaps at the rate of the real living wage. This would also have the effect of making learner leave most attractive to the low-paid workers who could benefit most from participation in training, rather than to higher-skilled workers who are more likely to have an employer willing to invest in training them. Government would also need to decide on when the entitlement would kick in, how long it would last for, and what sort of courses would be eligible. 

Alongside a broader entitlement to publicly funded training, learner leave could make a right to lifelong learning real. An earned entitlement to paid time off work for education and training could give workers time to learn, and put them in control of their education and career future.

Joe Dromey is deputy director of research and development at the Learning and Work Institute