Integral lifelong learning policy has a triple dimension: innovation, social inclusion and an active citizenship. Lifelong learning aims to provide the active population with the basic skills of the knowledge-based society and the tools and instruments needed to exploit technological innovation. Lifelong learning can also help to attract people trapped in non-active situations towards some kind of economic activity. Lifelong learning is also a vital tool for social inclusion; people can be given greater levels of autonomy and helped to take decisions and shoulder responsibility for designing their own life projects and for their personal and professional development. In this respect, underprivileged people should be given special attention. Lifelong learning also favours the creation of an active citizenship: by strengthening the critical spirit, it helps to greater understanding of society, of people’s and citizens’ rights and duties, and of the way local, regional, state and European institutional, political and economic systems function. People can thus more effectively influence the decisions that directly affect them, thereby promoting their participation in, among other entities, social and cultural associations, political parties, trade unions, non-profit-making organisations, NGOs and the mass media.
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