Characterising IT as a vehicle of empowerment makes it easier to see the concomitant danger of relying increasingly on IT as the preferred platform for flexible lifelong learning provision, which is the potential to alienate the sectors of the population which do not have access to computers and the Internet. We must all be ever mindful of this. Government should facilitate the adoption of a national CATS framework which is compatible with ECTS and other international schemes. National standards should be set for all levels of achievement, for vocational and academic routes. However, a national curriculum for HE is wholly inappropriate, as it would stultify innovation in education, which would in turn kill innovation in industry.
Education is seen as the key to realising that ambition.
Then there's Al Gore, whose vision and championing of the information superhighway has captured the imagination of the people. The recent focus on lifelong learning is a reflection of the realisation that learning must be more active than passive, more structured and long term-all the pieces must interlock.