Information Literacy lies at the core of lifelong learning. It empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes social inclusion of all nations.
Lifelong learning enables individuals, communities and nations to attain their goals and to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the evolving global environment for shared benefit. It assists them and their institutions to meet technological, economic and social chalenges, to redress disadvantage and to advance the well being of all.
The concept of lifelong learning is essential to the competitiveness of the knowledge economy. It applies to all levels of education and training and concerns all stages of life, as well as the different forms of apprenticeship. Lifelong learning aims to provide citizens with tools for personal development, social integration and participation in the knowledge economy.
The Comenius (for schools), Erasmus (for higher education), Leonardo da Vinci (for vocational training and education) and Grundtvig (for adult education) programmes, now united under the umbrella of the Lifelong Learning Programme, contribute to achieving these objectives.
