This brief issue paper proposes that a coherent approach to tertiary education and training is necessary to enhance lifelong learning opportunities for citizens, in order to develop capacity and capabilities to deal with the challenges posed by the new world-of work. The paper reviews key European Union education and training policy initiatives, citing them as examples of the construction of a meta-framework of systems and processes that support the move towards the emergence of a European tertiary education area. Finally reflections from a practitioner perspective are presented detailing some of the major policy reform initiatives in Ireland.