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The Royal Thai Government, responding to the need to stay competitive in an era of globalisation and rapid technological change, has identified lifelong learning as one of the major current education issues. The Government defines lifelong learning as providing 'second chances' to update skills and also offering learning opportunities at more advanced levels. To accomplish this, it is acknowledged that formal systems of education and training provision need to become more open and flexible so that such opportunities can be tailored to the needs of learners or potential learners. The paper gives a brief overview of the Thai education and training system, identifies the forces for lifelong learning and describes the framework and implementation plan of Thai education. The paper then offers the following six crucial elements of a coherent and comprehensive lifelong learning strategy: (1) the encouragement of effective partnerships between stakeholders (public and private providers, business and industry and social groupings) at all levels (national, regional and local); (2) taking into account forseeable labour market trends, a redefinition of basic skills which includes the new information and communications technologies; (3) the provision of adequate resources and facilities; (4) facilitation of access to educational and training opportunities by such measures as the creation of more local learning centres; (5) the creation of a learning culture by giving learning a higher profile; and (6) the introduction of quality control and indicators to measure progress, with provision made for standards and guidelines whereby achievements are recognised and rewarded.