Lifelong learning - a new conceptual framework, and the role of an undergraduate engineering education

Lifelong learning is used extensively within education and specifically within engineering education, but is not well-defined, which makes it hard for learning organizations to clarify how they are supporting the lifelong learner. This paper proposes a new conceptual framework of lifelong learning which breaks it into three layers: a long-term career- and life-focussed learning layer, a medium-term “programme of learning” layer, and a real-time layer for monitoring and adjusting learning as it happens. The paper then considers the role of undergraduate engineering education in developing these facets and looks at how well the proposed conceptual framework maps to existing programmes in the authors’ home institution. Although the proposed framework was developed for engineering, and engineering education specifically, the framework is intended to be taken up more widely. The proposed conceptual framework will support the individual learner achieve greater intentionality as they develop their learning skills throughout their life and will support learning institutions to articulate the intended learning skills around lifelong learning more precisely.