The main conceptual approaches to contemporary lifelong learning and continuing education

The present article discusses some problems of lifelong learning and continuing education, their focus and content at all levels of the education system. The key characteristics of modern ideas about the development and functioning of lifelong (continuing) education are described. The authors undertake holistic philosophical analysis of the issues emphasised by contemporary educationalists and education practitioners. The philosophical analysis of lifelong (continuing) education allows to investigate it as process, as activity and as a mechanism of their interaction, as well as structural-institutional and structural-functional phenomenon. Lifelong (Continuing) education is frequently analysed as a process of continuous professional training (development) at all levels of the education system, and also as supplementary education. In recent years, researchers have shown an increased interest in the problem of preparing students for the changing conditions of social development. However, such analysis is not always carried out in the context of the problems of lifelong education. Least of all, the problem of lifelong education is revealed through the study of its leading objective, which is aimed at transmitting Culture.