Education and training histories of 1,104 British respondents ages 15-65 identified them as nonparticipants, delayed, transitional, or lifetime. Social determinants of adult participation were identified. Immediate postcompulsory education and training is predicted by more privileged family background. Later lifelong learning is more dependent on…

A survey in Wales suggests that though the more privileged have more success in school, the successful stay on in education, and the highly educated more often receive training in work.Changes in opportunity and society, differences between genders, and variations between regions also determine participation in adult education. (PEN)

Analysis of patterns of participation of 1,104 adults in South Wales shows that socioeconomic background, more than educational attainment, plays a crucial role in educational participation. Over time, immediate and later patterns of participation are determined by separate influences. (SK)

Case studies from longitudinal research on adult educational participation identified important determinants of lifelong learning patterns: age, place, gender, family background, and religion. The data suggest that adults' learning choices are made within the framework of subjective opportunity structures, including notions of what is appropriate…

In Britain, the notion of the Learning Society is advocated as an investment in economic development and a way to improve access to education. Study of adult-education participation in South Wales over 50 years suggests that the Learning Society is a rhetorical device that masks the lack of real progress toward widespread inclusion and access to…

Analysis of education and training histories of 1,104 adults in Wales identified patterns of participation as lifelong trajectories. Key predictors of participation emerged: period when born, place of birth, gender, family background, and initial schooling. Results called into question the rhetoric about progress toward a Learning Society and the…

Explores the relationships between the patterns of participation in lifelong learning of parents and children within families. Based on a large-scale study of lifetime participation in industrial South Wales. Suggests that individual participation trajectories remain similar within families and illustrates the varied manifestations of family…

Questions the narrow definition of learning used in lifelong learning discourses. Uses evidence from a study of patterns of participation in adult learning in South Wales from 1900 to argue that if informal learning continues to be ignored, the result may be an exclusiveness in defining a learning society. (CMK)

A study attempted to determine whether the United States experience of continuing education and training provides an appropriate resource for changes intended to increase lifelong learning in the United Kingdom by considering institutional and cultural differences for the two countries. The study considered the trajectories for lifelong learning…

This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. Discussion begins with an…

This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. It examines the notion of a…

A study in South Wales developed the insights provided by previous research into further education and job training by exploring the ways in which the determinants of participation in lifetime learning vary systematically over time and from locality to locality. In addition, the study looked at empirical patterns of participation in lifetime…

This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. This paper describes the…

This paper considers the social and structural determinants of adult participation in education and training. Section 1 deals with 11 lifetime learning trajectories identified from a systematic stratified sample of 1,104 education and training histories collected from respondents aged 15-65 in industrial South Wales. For the purposes of the paper,…

Although the National Targets for Education and Training in England and Wales include indicators for lifelong learning, and the progress towards the targets set for these indicators has been lauded by politicians and other observers, much of this apparent progress is actually accounted for by changes in these same indicators. However, once the…