Lifelong Learners in Engineering Education Students' Perspectives

Lifelong learning has been at the centre of many national education reforms in the past decade and higher education policy has been considerably shaped by it. At a policy level, a simple, elegant vision of integration and mutual dependence between learners, industry and higher education institutions (HEIs) is prescribed. In terms of this prescription, study programmes at HEIs are aligned to industry's skills and knowledge requirements and learners actively select and pursue educational opportunities in order to make and keep themselves employable. This paper describes a study of learner perspectives on lifelong learning and construction industry skills requirements in Estonia. The findings suggest considerable diversity in learner perceptions of what constitute current and future industrial requirements, a dissatisfaction among learners regarding the adequacy of HEI responses to industry needs and a reluctance to conform to the prescribed role of lifelong learner, all of which challenge the prescribed model.