Abstract
The aim of this article is to describe what is significant for youth learning in late modern society, as seen in relation to learning in childhood and in adulthood.It starts by outlining a modern understanding and theory of learning as comprising a cognitive, an emotional and a social/societal dimension. On this basis it is pointed out that what especially characterizes learning in youth is that it is always connected to and marked by the process of identity development. However, the concept of identity has also undergone profound changes in late modernity. Therefore the article concludes by suggesting the term ‘self-orientation’ as the central concept of contemporary youth learning processes.