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This paper focuses on the key problems associated with investments in lifelong learning that facilitate the redistribution of lifelong learning opportunities throughout the life courses of individuals and between the generations. A critical approach is adopted to the dominance of the labour market and employability issues with reference to investments in lifelong learning. Transformations towards knowledge societies and knowledge economies are currently taking place in the context of ageing populations whose initial training was acquired in the educational systems of the industrial societies of the mid-20th century. Integrated funding models that focus upon promoting lifelong learning among the working population are examined critically from the perspective that investments in lifelong learning need to be informed by both 'lifelong' and 'life-wide' approaches to learning opportunities through flexible delivery systems. Finally, the paper examines the need for a reconfiguration of the funding of social welfare systems with particular reference to the funding of investments in lifelong learning that are more responsive to the increasingly flexible and unpredictable life courses of individuals in the knowledge society.