Abstract

Due to structural changes, labor market has become more flexible; therefore, workers alternate periods of employment with unemployment and they can exploit the latter to hone their skills. However, not everyone is able to navigate easily or quickly within such labor market. A certain degree of flexibility divide is observable between those who know how to exploit flexibility and mobility for their benefit, and fragile workers who are its victims. Lifelong learning allows to counteract this phenomenon, so it has become an integral part of new active policies, proposed by national welfare systems and the European Union. Moreover, it allows to reconcile the interests of the productive system (learning economy) and the requests coming from the world of work (learning society). After examining the flexibility and mobility of the Italian labor market from the PLUS 2018 data, the article identifies lifelong learning as one of the tools for managing transitional dynamics. A concise reconstruction of the theoretical and historical evolution of the lifelong learning concept is presented up to the current models of intervention proposed in Europe for the simultaneous development of workers’ skills and innovation of production processes.