European education and training policies increasingly affirm that knowledge and skills are needed for life: they are seen as central to employability, competitiveness, citizenship and social cohesion. The major manifestation of this policy goal has been to promote the concept of lifelong learning as a strategy to achieve the diverse outcomes associated with lifelong learning. A commitment to promote lifelong learning is an understandable element of public education policy. At one level, this reflects the long-standing concern of policy makers about the relationship between qualifications, employment and social cohesion. At another level, certain assumptions about lifelong learning are evident: for example, an explicit acceptance that individuals have to accept responsibility for managing their learning. The tenacity of these assumptions within much of the policy literature has obscured several considerations about: (i) the relationship between knowledge and skill; and, (ii) different social and economic outcomes associated with different European models of lifelong learning. The first point is that knowledge and skill cannot be conceived as 'commodities' to be built into curricula, acquired, converted into people's private property and used mechanistically to inform conduct. The second is that different national models of lifelong learning appear to have very different outcomes as regards equality, social cohesion and economic prosperity. The third is that living and working in a knowledge society does not simply involve the application of existing forms of knowledge or skill or a swathe of pre-given rules. In light of these considerations, the aim of this symposium is explore the link between knowledge, competitiveness and cohesion. It proposes to address this issue in the following ways. First, to identify principles and criteria for analysing the relationship between knowledge and skill in vocational curricula. Second, to identify a number of different European models of lifelong learning and their relationship to regional spaces. Third, to identify the social outcomes of different European models of lifelong learning. Fourth, to identify how individuals and communities are using knowledge and skill to address emerging economic, political and social issues in an innovative and creative fashion. Paper One: D. Guile Vocational Epistemics, Curricula and the Knowledge Economy Various debates have, in recent years, been concerned with the implications of the knowledge economy for vocational education. Within these discussions attempts to strengthen vocational education have primarily concentrated upon the issue of 'key qualifications'. This focus on key qualifications reflects the attempt in many European countries to address the perceived challenge of the knowledge economy by concentrating upon strengthening the links between qualifications and employment. On the one hand, this is an understandable response since it reflects policymakers longstanding concern with qualifications as a proxy measure of the relationship between education and employment. On the other hand, most of the debates about key qualifications have not addressed the following questions: what is meant by the term 'knowledge' in the knowledge economy? what 'type of knowledge' should vocational curricula be developing to support learners to operate effectively in the knowledge economy? Drawing on recent discussions about knowledge in vocational curricula in Germany and the UK, it will suggest that the knowledge economy raises a number of epistemic issues for vocational curricula that have yet to be addressed in the key qualification debates. Paper Two: A. Green Social and Economic Effects of Different Models of Lifelong Learning The cross-national literature on the societal effects of learning and skills tend to focus either on macro- economic or macro-social outcomes. Studies of education and economic growth/competitiveness rarely look at concomitant social outcomes; whilst studies of education and social capital/social cohesion rarely consider the connections with economic outcomes. This paper offers some preliminary ideas on how these relationships interact through the medium of distribution. A mapping of different lifelong learning models onto different models of the knowledge economy show crucial distinctions between more or less polarized national systems. Countries producing bi-polar skills sets tend towards highly dualistic competitiveness strategies. At the same time countries with wide skills distributions also tend to have lower levels of social cohesion. Using aggregated cross-national data on skills distributions from the International Adult Literacy Survey and on social cohesion measures from the World Values Survey, the paper tests a 'distributional model' of education effects on social cohesion through skills and income distribution. At the two extremes 'Nordic' and 'Anglo-Saxon' models of lifelong learning are seen to produce respectively much narrower and much wider distributions of skills and incomes. Using a combined index of social cohesion, including measures of trust, civic cooperation and violent crime, the more egalitarian countries can be seen to be significantly more 'cohesive' than those with wider distributions of skills and incomes. Paper 3: A. Tuijnman 'Models of Lifelong Learning' Nordic and other cases' Judging from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) literacy skill profiles, Nordic countries stand out from other advanced regions in Europe and North America. The relatively high average performance of their populations make this group of countries a possible benchmark for other IALS countries. Of interest, are their policies relating to human capital formation, and in particular adult education and training policies. This chapter addresses the question of whether there are any specific 'Nordic' ways of planning and implementing adult education policies. What are the key features, if any that define a common approach to adult education, which set the Nordic countries apart from other advanced regions in Europe and North America? Beyond the aggregated skill profiles, specific sub-groups of the population are analysed, especially the so-called at-risk groups, i.e. those that perform at relatively low levels of literacy proficiency and/or have the least education. All five Nordic countries are included in the analysis: Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The analysis uses data from the International Adult Literacy Survey for four countries and is supplemented with a limited set of data available for Iceland. While the number of people who participate in adult education is consistently higher than other countries, the volume of adult education is not that different. As such, it appears that one distinct feature of Nordic countries involves the use of public intervention to distribute adult education opportunities more equitably. In particular, it seems that public support for disadvantaged groups is the main defining characteristic of Nordic countries. Paper 4 : R. Desjardins: 'Determinants of Literacy Proficiency:An International Comparative Analysis The aim of this paper is to investigate the predictive capacity of major determinants of literacy proficiency such as educational attainment, home background, language status, age, labour force and occupational status, reading practices at work and at home, adult education and training as well as other related activities. The analysis places an emphasis on four major sets of factors, namely the home background, education, the job and other literacy related factors. In so doing, the same general structural model, which is based on previous research, is fitted to 18 of the countries participating in the International Adult Literacy Survey. The results show that even after introducing all major sets of factors into the model, education retains its position as the most important predictor of literacy proficiency. In all countries, however, the total effect of education is significantly mediated through further learning occurring at work, home and in the community. Therefore, in most countries, job and other literacy related factors complement education in predicting literacy proficiency. This result suggests that educational attainment plays a strong role in determining literacy practice, as well as other learning behaviours throughout life, which together tend to lead to higher literacy proficiency. In addition, results show that the home background as measured by parents' education is also a strong predictor of literacy proficiency, but in many countries this occurs