"Learning Through Life," the main report from the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, is the culmination of a two-year process of consultation, analysis and reflection. The report sets out bold proposals which go well beyond the boundaries of adult education and training. Several key weaknesses in the current system were identified and these include: (1) the shortcomings of initial education in laying a true foundation for lifelong learning; (2) the lack of response to key demographic changes, most obviously the ageing of the population; (3) the failure to recognise the extended and complex transitions into and out of employment, especially at the beginnings and ends of people's working lives; (4) persistent inequalities of opportunity and resource, and especially the way these inequalities grow over the life-course (called the Matthew effect); (5) excessive centralisation and lack of trust of the local (in England--it should be noted here that the Inquiry covered all the nations of the UK, whose variety posed a further set of interesting challenges); and (6) a lack of "intelligence" in the system, that is, a low capacity to learn lessons from the past and from each other, and to build a proper research base. In this article, the authors focus on four of the report's ten main recommendations.