Lifelong Learning, Reskilling, and Upskilling for Ageing Societies

This chapter examines the challenges and opportunities of lifelong learning in silver economies, focusing on why many adult education and training systems remain misaligned with demographic change and rapid technological transformation. It argues that lifelong learning should be treated as core social infrastructure for healthy longevity—linking employability, autonomy, and cognitive wellbeing across the life course—rather than as a residual policy for displaced workers. To operationalise this shift, the chapter proposes a five-pillar model: learning entitlements; financing and time; guidance and validation; work design for learning; and health–learning integration. It then applies this framework to three priority areas: digital inclusion, later-life entrepreneurship, and equity for disadvantaged learners, including those in informal work or carrying care responsibilities. The chapter advances the case for an age-inclusive human-capital strategy anchored in a life-course capability system that integrates skills renewal, mid-career transitions, entrepreneurship pathways, and wellbeing supports within a coherent policy architecture. The following sections outline the theoretical foundations, diagnose systemic gaps, and propose reforms capable of turning longer lives into longer, more meaningful working and learning trajectories.