Lifelong Learning Recognition

The ILO's recent report on lifelong learning runs to 236 pages.

It covers the evolution of the concept since the 1990s, the policy challenges governments face in building more flexible education systems, and the growing pressure on workers and employers alike to keep pace with an accelerating economy. It is a serious, thorough piece of work.

Lifelong learning has a blind spot

In those 236 pages, the phrase "Recognition of Prior Learning" appears nine times.

That number reflects a blind spot in the lifelong learning conversation.

The ILO's working definition is instructive:

"Lifelong learning encompasses all learning activities undertaken throughout life, whether in educational, work, family or other social contexts, independently of whether they lead to formal certificates or qualifications."

The missing half

An importantly inclusive framing of what counts as learning input. But without an equally inclusive approach to recognising what that learning produces, we have described only half a system.

If our collective goal is lifelong skills development, do we achieve it by putting recognition barriers in the way of learners? By asking them to complete bureaucratic processes that offer little credit for prior work experience, or by dismissing recognition entirely unless it arrives attached to a suitable institution?

The report acknowledges that current RPL systems are weak contributors to the institutional barriers limiting lifelong learning. But the focus remains almost entirely on access to learning input. The recognition of what learners already know and what they have learned outside formal systems is treated as a secondary concern.

That gap has consequences.

Addressing the challenge of increasing access to higher education or employment for those with only informal experience requires scalable, transparent recognition infrastructure.  Rooms filled with people reviewing payslips and letters of recommendation are not sustainable. Proof that you were there is not proof that you learned anything. Credit assessments of formal qualifications are often more akin to trade agreements between institutions than a genuine recognition of prior capability.

Here's the opportunity

The ILO notes that only a minority of surveyed countries have any form of digitised RPL process. Developments in AI are making broad-based adoption of genuine skills recognition possible for the first time. That is the opportunity the report gestures toward but does not pursue.

The call on page 218 for more investment in Skills Diagnosis, Intelligence, Quality Assurance Mechanisms and Recognition of Prior Learning is welcome. But it cannot be a footnote to the overwhelming focus on educational input.

Lifelong learning requires lifelong recognition.

Until that pairing is treated with equal seriousness, the promise of the first will remain largely unrealised.

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The full report Lifelong learning and skills for the future, International Labour Organization, 2026, can be downloaded here https://lab.ilo.org/world-work-series/lifelong-learning-and-skills-future