Redefining Employment, Innovating Learning Experiences

In a world where health inequalities are often attributed to non-medical factors, the conversation around work and education has taken centre stage. The World Health Organization's findings suggest that factors such as level or years of education can explain most health inequalities.

This has sparked a proposal to reorganise work, integrating lifelong education into the system. The idea is to create a complementary function between education and work throughout a person's life. This new approach aims to promote a positive interaction between education, work, and leisure.

The 40-hour workweek, a reality since the early 20th century, has been a subject of debate. Despite technological improvements and increases in productivity, it remains unchanged. The insidiousness of the work ethic and a system that relies on a precarious and overworked working class has led to the current situation.

Advocates of this new system argue that reducing working hours can decrease carbon emissions and air pollution, making it a crucial step towards a carbon-neutral economy. The degrowth movement has included work-sharing and a 32-hour week as part of their policy proposals.

However, the challenges faced by individuals pursuing education during their adult life are not insignificant. Long working hours, prohibitive fees, and precarious wages can limit a person's ability to further their education.

The pandemic has exposed the unnecessary nature of much work and ways of working, revealing a system overflowing with redundant and unnecessary jobs. This has led to calls for a proper reorganisation of work, viewing it as one of several realms of life, alongside moments of connection, rest, labour, contemplation, education, and idleness.

The concept of lifelong learning was first outlined in the 1970s by Peter Jarvis, who developed the idea that people can alternate between periods of work and periods of education and further training throughout their lives. The EU's lifelong learning agenda highlights the need to increase adult participation in both formal and non-formal education, but the overarching conception remains within a neoliberal framing linked to competitiveness and employability.

The EU committed to increasing adult participation in education from 10 per cent to 15 per cent between 2014 and 2020, but by 2019 the rate had only reached 10.8 per cent. Belgium introduced regulations on paid educational leave in 1985, allowing employees to take paid leave in order to pursue a study programme of their choice.

The aim of continuing education should not be staying up to date with the most recent developments or gaining profitable skills, but to allow people to cultivate their interests and acquire understanding, experience, and skills in disciplines and areas that excite and intrigue them. This new system would encourage bouts of idleness and enjoyment that our rigid work paradigm has for so long repressed.

Despite some limitations, such as the virtual exclusion of part-time workers, the existence of laws promoting lifelong learning serves as an inspiration and a reminder that work's domination over other areas of life is not, and should not be, the norm. A person in the lowest education category is twice as likely to develop a long-term disability, between 10 and 15 per cent more likely to develop a limiting illness, and has a risk of developing dementia almost threefold that of someone in the highest category.

In conclusion, the integration of lifelong education into the reorganisation of work presents a promising solution to health inequalities and the need for a more sustainable economy. The aim should be to foster a life brimming with moments of connection, rest, labour, contemplation, education, and idleness, rather than a life dominated by work.