This chapter examines the evidence for claims that lifelong learning has a measurable impact on people’s lives. It considers this evidence in three main areas: the economic impact, the impact on individual well-being, and the impact on the wider community. In particular, it focuses on recent studies that explore longitudinal data, following people’s behaviour over time. It also tries to identifywhere those benefits flow, not least because it might seem reasonable to suppose that those whobenefit might decide to share in meeting the costs.

Pages 887-897 in David Aspin, Judith Chapman, Karen Evans and Richard Bagnall (eds.) Second International Handbook of Lifelong Learning Springer, Dordrecht, 2012