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This article reports on research carried out under the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC's) Learning Society Programme. The program comprised 14 projects involving research into the learning society and the ways in which it can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills for employment and in other areas of adult life. In this article, the authors present policy issues identified by an ongoing research study of the educational, work and home experiences of a small cohort of inner-city youth as they engage with a specific education, training and labour market setting in South West London. The research suggests that lifelong learning needs to begin from an early age rather than at sixteen as, to a large extent, the problems of participation, motivation and status differentiation in post-16 education and training are generated by compulsory education which does not facilitate inclusivity or maximum post-16 participation.