Structural change in the economy has seen the emergence of human resource skills as an important intangible input to the value-adding process. The fastest growing sectors of the economy employ workers with high levels of skill. This has led to the development of a lifelong learning policy agenda that argues lifelong learning is the key to economic prosperity in the future. The lifelong learning policy agenda assumes that because education is important to worker productivity, industries and employees will be willing to finance the cost of workers' participation in education and training. The lifelong learning policy agenda emphasizes the need to motivate people and their employers to invest more in education and training. But there is a significant difference between the amount of training undertaken by high- and low-skilled workers and a disparity in the extent to which these groups of individuals attract employer support. People in highly skilled jobs are more likely to participate in continuing education and training than people in low-skilled occupations. People in low-skilled occupations are less likely to receive employer support for their participation in continuing education and training. The policy goal of "lifelong learning for all" is unlikely to be achieved unless governments actively support education and training participation among people with lower levels of skill. (Contains 16 references.) (YLB)