While much of this volume focuses on the legal arguments regarding the right to lifelong learning, this chapter draws on different perspectives to offer an alternative set of challenges for this debate. First, the author revisits a now quite elderly debate from the field of adult education about the strengths and limitations of the notion of lifelong learning and the important distinctions between the positions of key international actors in this debate: UNESCO, the EU and the OECD. Second, the chapter moves to the field of the right to education and where this stands in relation to debates about the right to post-school education. Here, the author draws on both his work for UNESCO on this issue and his engagement with the international NGO rights movement through an advisory role with the Right to Education Initiative. Third, the chapter moves to current debates about inclusion and quality in vocational education and training. This section also raises questions regarding the applicability of European approaches in the Global South. © 2026 selection and editorial matter, Lourdes Mella Méndez, Silvia Fernández Martínez and Bárbara Torres García; individual chapters, the contributors.
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