Lifelong learning represents a fundamental conceptual change in the approach to education; its organising principle, in which all learning opportunities – whether in traditional educational institutions within the education system or elsewhere – are seen as a single interconnected whole that enables various and numerous transitions between education and employment and which allows the same qualifications and competences to be obtained in various ways and at any time during one’s life.
Continuing education, adult education, lifelong education, and the development of human resources became the subject of many strategic documents (dealing not only with educational matters) and projects, which prepare measures for their gradual implementation.
The concept for the development of the area of lifelong learning in 2007–2015 was represented by the Strategy of Lifelong Learning in the Czech Republic, together with its follow-up implementation plan, the Lifelong Learning Strategy. Since 2015 this area has not had any exclusive strategic material. Through the Strategy for Education Policy of the Czech Republic until 2020 the issues of lifelong learning were included in follow-up documents, mainly the Long-term Plan of Education and the Development of the Education System of the Czech Republic and the Strategic Plan for Higher Education Institutions. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports prepared in cooperation with experts and general public new Strategy for Education Policy of the Czech Republic until 2030+, which was approved by the Government in October 2020.
The area of lifelong learning has become an integral component of the set of the main strategic documents of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, a part of the topic related to further education being taken over by a department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports cooperates with it on the production of specific targeted materials that take into account the principles of lifelong learning. On the basis of this cooperation, the Strategy of Digital Literacy of the Czech Republic for the Period 2015–2020, which is one of the measures of the way to a digital economy. The aim of the Strategy is the development of optimal tools which enable new employees to be prepared for entering employment and at the same time the current employees who are confronted with the changes in information and communication technologies and globalisation to be supported. The main vision of this document is the development of the digital literacy of the citizens of the Czech Republic in such a way that they are prepared to use the potential of digital technologies for their lifelong personal development, and for improving their quality of life and social inclusion. Other aims are reducing the digital gap and ensuring, or increasing, digital literacy and strengthening the Czech economy and its competitiveness.
The new structure of strategic materials in the field of education incorporates the topic of lifelong learning into the existing main strategic and conceptual documents with the aim of integrating the concept of lifelong learning, to which the Strategy for Education Policy of the Czech Republic until 2020 contributed. The topic of lifelong learning is further strengthened in the concepts related to the National Initiative Industry 4.0, specifically Work 4.0 of the departments of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.