Have you ever wondered when you stop gaining qualifications? Most of us assume it ends with the external discipline of school or college or university. In short, we tend to think of education as something given to us by institutions (or, for millions of young people these days, bought with huge loans) rather than something we give to ourselves.

Of course, you don’t just learn at school. When I was young in the 70s and 80s people talked of graduating from the University of Life.

That particular academic institution offered no formal diplomas or degrees, just its own kind of wisdom, sometimes flawed, sometimes as precious as the thoughts of the greatest philosophers.

People also talked of the ‘leisure society’, based on the idea that automation and technology would make many traditional jobs obsolete. The challenge then, we were told, would be how to fill all that free time and still feel fulfilled.

Scroll forward to 2017.

For one thing, we’re all living much longer than previous generations dreamt possible and having more time poses the problem of how to fill it. It also raises other unexpected issues. According to a poll by Gransnet, the over-50s social networking site, about seven in 10 respondents – average age 63 – said they felt lonely and more than half of those had never spoken to anyone about how they feel.

Let’s face it, isolation is a complex problem without an easy solution. But spending time with other people isn’t a problem faced by elderly people alone. We seem to have evolved into society without strong communities where many people feel they have only friends and family to rely on, and sometimes not even that.

And although employment levels are currently at a record high (while wage rises are at a record low), business leaders have predicted in a YouGov poll conducted for the Royal Society of Arts that four million jobs in the British private sector could be replaced by robots in the next decade.

So what has this to do with meaningful qualifications? I would argue it is high time for Britain to start considering a broader approach to education. Namely, that we actively start investing in life-long learning through the tax system and through widening our general attitudes to culture.

Here are a few suggestions for how we could all keep learning, whatever our age.

First off, why don’t we establish a generous system of learning credits for all citizens? These could be spent on any form of education that takes our fancy and fits in with our family and work commitments.

Our quota of credits could cover tuition fees at university or day release for professional training if we are in work. They could even be invested in night classes with accredited courses run by established educational institutions like York College. Such a system would generate new jobs as well as make people happier and more productive.

Secondly, perhaps many of us need to reconsider our own lifestyle choices in order to feel more fulfilled through education.

Take social media, that great swamp of flashing images and transient messages where time so easily drowns. I’m sure I am not alone in regretting precious hours wasted on Facebook and Twitter. In that sense, lifelong learning is a personal responsibility. And we can find it in unexpected places.

Now I’m a relative newbie to the book club world, having always picked my own reading matter. However, joining one has forced me to read books I would never have known about, let alone opened and enjoyed. It is a kind of learning that’s both sociable and instructive – especially with a full glass to wash down the words.

George Orwell famously called the English a nation of hobbyists and that, too, is a wonderful source of lifelong learning. Our hobbies define us as much as our work, whether we’re talking about playing football on a Sunday, building model aeroplanes or flower arranging.

So let’s encourage and enable all our citizens to never cease striving for qualifications. No grade or certificate is required. Simply taking part counts as a resounding pass.