4-6 December Rapid and far-reaching change, stimulated by technological innovation and global competition, is refashioning the economic and social organisation of the planet and forcing us to rethink the relationship between education, training and work. Each year, at least 10% of all jobs disappear and are replaced by new, different jobs in new processes and new enterprises, requiring higher or broader skills. The old mass-production system, in which the professional development of the individual is a linear progression - a single career based on the same qualifications and skills - is disappearing fast, and is being replaced by a more knowledge-based economy, where information and technology play a crucial role. What will the situation be like ten years from now, when 80% of the technology we use today will be obsolete? This challenge must first be met by the educational system, which can no longer limit itself to turning out people who have been "educated" once and for all. It must instead form individuals who are able to continue to learn new skills in continuously evolving situations. In the words of Unesco experts, the emphasis must be on "learning to be, learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together". But how, and how much, must educational systems change to reach this goal? Another challenge that our changing society must meet is to provide people with the means for lifelong learning. Lifelong learning has become an essential part of enabling workers to adapt and, above all, anticipate the evolution of technology and work, following flexible and personalised learning paths. This regards young people, those who already have jobs and, first and foremost, the unemployed, who without new and appropriate skills are unlikely to re-enter the active labour force. Despite the cost society bears to support them - 200 billion ECU per year in Europe alone - the unemployed are not learning anything new; in fact, they are de-learning. How can we transform this unproductive expenditure into investment in human capital that will enable people to escape the trap of unemployment? Can we develop a model of development that reconciles economic growth, full employment and an adequate welfare state?

The end of work Friday 5 June 1997 In the new Information Age, the traditional political spectrum of marketplace vs government is likely to be replaced by the notion of a three-legged political stool with the marketplace, government and civil sectors each acting as a check and balance against the other in a new kind of tripartite politics. The new political paradigm is going to have far reaching consequences, reshaping our very ideas of citizenship in the coming century. Automated technologies have been reducing the need for human labor in every manufacturing category. Within 10 years, less than 12 percent of the entire global workforce will be on the factory floor, and by the year 2020, less than 2 percent of the entire global workforce will still be engaged in factory work. Over the next quarter century, we will see the virtual elimination of the mass assembly line worker from the production process. While the "knowledge sector" requires by nature an elite workforce, it will create too few new jobs to absorb these millions of workers. The opportunity now exists to create new jobs in the civil society. For this a genuine attempt will be needed to recast the political landscape, and to increase the clout and elevate the profile of the civil society, making it an equal player with both the marketplace and the government. There is much to be gained from the shift in political perspective to the new tripartite model. In the old dynamic, the community was shunted to the margins of political debate. It had little or no place in the political dialogue over how much government versus how much marketplace. In the new model, the civil society becomes the most important leg of the political stool. Redirecting the debate with civil society in the center between the market and the government spheres, fundamentally changes the nature of political discourse, opening up the possibility of re-envisioning the body politic, the economy and the nature of work and society in wholly new ways in the coming century.