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To create a lifelong learning society requires providers of education and training to attract and work with people who, for a wide range of reasons, do not consider learning a desirable or feasible option. Many of these belong to the most disadvantaged sections of the population. They are often unaware of local learning opportunities or lack the confidence, time or material resources to take advantage of them. Many perceive learning as formal and irrelevant and something that other groups and social classes do. Making effective contact with these groups and providing appropriate opportunities for them is not easy. This set of guidelines indicates the kind of approaches that work and proposes some transferable 'principles of engagement' in working with excluded groups. The guidelines are based on the work of the Oxfordshire Strategic Partnership in the United Kingdom (UK) and other initiatives to widen participation among groups with little or no previous contact with post-compulsory education.