A Critique of the Ambitions and Challenges of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) from a Lifelong Learning Perspective

In 2025, the English government will commence the roll out of a transformative new funding system for post-18 learners entitled the 'Lifelong Learning Entitlement' (LLE). This will be a single funding system for both higher and further education, which the government argues, will enable learners to pay for courses to develop new skills and gain new qualifications at a time that is right for them through full-time degree programmes, flexibly through part-time study, or by undertaking individual modules as and when they are needed. The focus is on training, retraining and upskilling at levels four to six (i.e., the first three years of a degree programme) and on high-value technical courses at levels four and five. Essentially, the LLE is a lifelong entitlement to access a loan fund to support higher level/higher education studies up to age 60. Some targeted maintenance grant funding will be provided to some students who require it to age 60 and beyond. The authors will provide a critical review of the LLE from a lifelong learning perspective. They will explore the complex multifaceted discourse embedded in LLE intentions, as presented in policy statements, some of which appear to be at odds with the claims made about the role of LLE, and identify the ways that it will need to be shaped to achieve the benefits sought by government. Using the critical themes underpinning this special edition of the journal, they will consider the role that education provided through the LLE 'transformative agenda' can play in enabling access by adult learners of all types and for multiple reasons. They will consider the interplay between these and neo-liberal values relating to the role of higher education in employment, training and skills-focused priorities. They will also reflect on the role that the HE sector will inevitably need to play in shaping course design and delivery to ensure that the LLE can deliver both the government's goals and those of lifelong learners, particularly those from disadvantaged communities and backgrounds.