Lifelong learning works as a catalyst to competitiveness, prosperity and social cohesion and yet no country has attempted to measure lifelong learning within its population. The Canadian Council on Learning have developed a way to sudy how thier population is "lerning" which come to the attention of European authorities.

The Composite Leaning Index (CLI) developed by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) shows how this gap might be filled by assessing the state of lifelong learning over time, for individual communities and across Canada using the conceptual four-pillar framework of lifelong learning proposed by UNESCO.

The JRC Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) contributed by validating and critically assessing the methodological approach undertaken by the CCL to build the Composite Learning Index (CLI). This methodological revision was done during the composite indicator development and at the end of the process. By doing so, initially subjective design choices were corrected, modified, and ultimately justified, with a view to increase the reliability of the results. The CLI can thus be used to allow for easy spatial and temporal comparisons (benchmarking), prioritize areas in Canada of relatively low lifelong content and monitor and evaluate policies effectiveness. The Canadian Composite Learning Index bears the appealing and necessary features to become a role model for Europe. In fact, such an attempt is currently under development by the Bertelsmann Stiftung together with international research-partners and the JRC-IPSC team to operationalize the concept of lifelong learning in Europe.

What is lifelong learning and the four-pillar framework?

The Lifelong learning programme aims to contribute to the development of quality lifelong learning, and to promote high performance, innovation and a European dimension in systems and practices in the field.

The Four Pillars of Education are the Treasure Within and are the basis of the whole report. These four pillars of knowledge cannot be anchored solely in one phase in a person's life or in a single place. There is a need to re-think when in people's lives education should be provided, and the fields that such education should cover. The periods and fields should complement each other and be interrelated in such a way that all people can get the most out of their own specific educational environment all through their lives.