A six-point plan to ensure that the concept of lifelong learning becomes a reality in the workplace, has been devised by Professor Joyce O'Connor, president of the National College of Ireland (NCI). The plan includes:

a one per cent of salary contribution by employers to fund the education and learning requirements of every employee;

a learners' charter, which sets out the basis for the delivery of workplace education and the roles and responsibilities of both employer and employee, for each company;

a learning plan for each employee;

employers to provide one day per year for the education needs of employees;

existing training to be certified by accreditation bodies, including FAS, CERT, NCEA and NCVA;

the development of a formal system of employee mentoring.

"An individual's education (i.e. the opportunity for learning and the individual's capacity for learning) will have to be a combination of home-based, workplace-based, community-based and school and college-based," O'Connor says.

"The education system cannot do this in isolation," she says. A partnership approach between Government, business, the trade unions and the community and voluntary sectors is the way forward, she asserts.