The skills debate in Europe has for many years been preoccupied with the supply of qualified individuals and their subsequent participation in training events. However, recent policy discourse has widened its focus to include lifelong learning which is typically defined as learning from day-to-day activities acquired at work, at home, from family members or through leisure pursuits. It therefore includes learning which is unintentional, unplanned and even incidental to the main purpose of the activity. The paper argues that despite the substitution of the word 'learning' for 'training', the preoccupation with participation in conscious and planned events which are set up to impart knowledge and skills remains as strong as ever. This rhetorical shift becomes all too evident when the substantial basis of several European and nation state level 'learning' surveys are examined (e.g., Eurotstat, 2003; Spilsbury, 2003; La Ville and Blake, 2001).

Against this background, the paper argues that survey designers need to be more innovative in question construction. In particular, they need to build on the lessons of case studies which focus on how learning takes place in the work context (Eraut et al., 2000). The main finding to emerge from them is that qualifications and training are crude barometers of skill acquisition since most learning arises naturally out of the demands and challenges of everyday work experience and interactions with colleagues, clients and customers.

In order to shed light on the relative importance of these sources of learning, we have developed an employee survey in association with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE). The survey instrument was designed by integrating the insights drawn from the literature on workplace learning and the sociology of work, thereby promoting an inter-disciplinary dialogue between education and sociology. The fieldwork was carried out in February 2004 and covered the UK. The data set comprises around 2,500 respondents randomly selected and interviewed in their own homes about their jobs. The survey was designed to pinpoint the activities which really matter for effective learning at work. In particular, the paper presents results which highlight the importance of social relationships and mutual support in helping individuals improve their performance at work compared to the relative unimportance of qualifications and attendance on courses about which we have long-running and systematic data series. The paper therefore offers an example of how learning activities as opposed to outcomes can be surveyed (Sfard, 1998; Skule, 2004), and presents some substantive results of interest to policy-makers and academics