The issue of 'lifelong' learning has become an important issue in educational policy in state and national levels. At the international level, lifelong learning has been adopted as a key issue of the European Union and the OECD and UNESCO. This paper focuses on one key of the policy agenda: how to pay for lifelong learning. The paper opens with a discussion of the concept of lifelong learning, the costs associated with lifelong learning and how individuals and organisations can be stimulated by government initiatives to invest in lifelong learning.