Korea: Lifelong Learning expectation

« A key element that we believe should be added to the work on how to effectively strengthen the social safety net and make more people feel happy with their lives is to promote lifelong learning. Improving and activating the system of lifelong education is needed not just to help people remain competitive and competent at the workplace but make their life more lively and meaningful.
Lifelong learning can be defined as self-motivated pursuit of knowledge and skills for either personal or professional reasons. Thus, it contributes to enhancing social inclusion, active citizenship and personal fulfillment beyond individual employability and competitiveness. Over the past decades, scientific and technological innovations have changed the public’s attitude toward learning, leading them to recognise that it is not confined to childhood or the classroom but goes on throughout life and in a diversity of circumstances. In terms of traditional brick and mortar schooling, Korea is one of the best-educated nations in the world. But it remains far lower than other major countries in the proportion of people who engage in self-directed learning throughout their lives.
According to a survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), nearly 40 per cent of Koreans aged 25-64 received university-level or higher education in 2009, compared to the OECD average of 30 per cent. But slightly over 30 per cent of Korean adults participated in various types of lifelong learning such as not-for-credit courses by universities, lessons at private institutes or community centres and online programmes in 2010. The ratio fell far short of the 2007 OECD average of 40.8 per cent. Source: Editorial Desk, The Korea Herald.