The principle of lifelong training seems overtly prescriptive and risks damaging the concept of ongoing education and its humanist, cultural and social development objectives. In this paper, the authors firstly clarify and situate the principal concepts in question--lifelong education, ongoing education, initial professional education (all schooling before entry into the working world), professional training and continuing professional training--in order to bring out the similarities, but above all to show their particularities in relation to lifelong education and training. Secondly, after presenting their method of analysis, they reveal what seems to be an evolution of practice in France and question the notion of lifelong training within this evolution: is professional training still within the scope of lifelong education? In further analysis they examine several countries in the European Union. They seek to clarify how well the aims and purposes of professional training are being met and its relationship to the larger concept of education.