"Education, education, education" has been a mantra in transnational and national policies since the mid-1990s: everybody has to take part in learning activities throughout their lives in order to stay employable. Hereby lifelong learning establishes a dividing practice between active and inactive lifelong learners constituting the latter as a "problem". The EU call is to make people active, with an underlying assumption of people not being motivated. This article explores how one such "inactive" group, low-skilled workers, narrates motivation for learning, work and other activities through a work life span. On the basis of the Self-Determination Theory, we argue that low-skilled workers are active and motivated; however, their motivational orientation may not be towards what is considered productive activities.