Theme 1: Securing a Learning Workplace, Employability, Competitiveness and Social Inclusion Nick Stuart, Department for Education and Employment, UK

Chair's Opening Remarks

Once we reach adulthood, work is for many of us the dominant feature of our lives. I do not say that it is the most important activity, of course not; but for most of us it gives us the means to live our lives, to support our families and to pursue our leisure interests, as well as being a source of satisfaction and pleasure in its own right.

It dominates by occupying a very large part of our waking hours. A survey in this country reports the average weekly hours worked across the European Union. I will not quote all the statistics, but the UK average is 30.6 hours per week. In Sweden it's 33 hours; in France it's 34 hours; in the Netherlands it's 25 hours. The European Union average is 32.8 hours.

Compare that - and here I've only got UK figures - with the 17.5 hours we spend watching television; the 4 hours we spend shopping; the 4 hours we spend in childcare. The only thing that comes ahead of that is sleeping time, 60 hours a week.

So, without dismissing the valuable learning which many people do in their leisure hours, it is not surprising that the work place is, for many adults, the place where they expect to learn, and where they do learn. And even if their learning is done out of the work place, in a college, or in a specialist training centre for example, it is very often related to their specific jobs, or to the development of their careers, and that of course is it should be.

For skills come through learning, whether on or off the job, and skills means employability to individuals and competitiveness to business.

Nick Stuart is Director General Of Employment, Lifelong Learning and International Directorate (DfEE). Since 1980 his career has been spent mainly in DES. He became Director of Resources and Strategy in the Employment Department in 1992. He became Director General for Employment and Lifelong Learning at the new Department for Education and Employment in August 1995. The International Directorate was added in April 1998.

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