IF the EU's education ministers get their way, education is going to move to the top of the EU agenda. Europe's most valuable raw materials are now human resources and knowledge, they say.

Traditional areas of employment in manufacturing and assembly are in decline, while research, product development, customer services and marketing are growing. These areas demand new skills and expertise. If Europe is to succeed as a commercial entity, business and education are going to have to form new alliances.

"Education is central to our society," according to Dr Joris Ritzen, the Netherlands' Minister for Education, who, addressed an EU conference to mark the end of the European Year of Life-long Learning at Dublin Castle recently. The EU is currently a unions of agriculture, he says, but it must become a union of knowledge.

Half of the EU budget goes on agriculture, while only 5 per cent is spent on education and science. "Ministers must ensure that a union of knowledge becomes a reality," said Ritzen.

The EU ministers see lifelong learning as the way forward. Instead of throwing away our books the moment we leave school or college, we'll all have to be prepared to increase our qualifications and expertise or even retrain and reskill throughout our lives.

"It's vital that we make it possible for people to change career," according to Italy's Minister for Education, Luigi Berlinguer. "We must offer the young and the not-so-young a wide variety of opportunities to enable them to be involved in the global labour market.

People need to be flexible and trained to operate comfortably in all European countries, he says. An understanding of different cultures is vital if people are to move freely throughout Europe to get work. A radical rethink of our education and training systems is required. "Our structure's in the EU are antiquated," says Berlinguer. "We have to get away from narrowly defined national cultures and identities."

Schools must be more focused on the labour market, he feels. The notion of professional training as an isolated concept must be overcome. "We have to bring together, the whole education system and ensure that professional and vocational training is linked to schools. We have to ensure the highest possible degrees of literacy, know-how and training throughout the continent."

Many teachers were trained decades ago, the Minister says. They too need to become aware that they must retrain and update their skills.

PARTNERSHIPS between business and education will enrich Irish education rather than supplant it, according to Richard Bruton, Minister for Enterprise and Employment. However, he says, our training and education systems must take on board management principles, including quality control, commitment to team work and openness to problem-solving.

However, there is widespread concern at ministerial level that the under-educated and unskilled at the bottom of the economic heap will be even further disadvantaged if the knowledge society is limited to a chosen few. It's essential, they say, that lifelong learning is available to everyone.

Putting the message across about life-long learning presents the EU with a major difficulty. "Our efforts to date, while they have advanced thinking on life-long learning among those in the education and training constituency, have not succeeded in conveying the importance of life-long learning to the public, or capturing their imagination," says Niamh Bhreathnach, our Minister for Education. We have to change the way we think about learning and devise ways of making education an enjoyable experience for everyone, she says.