Contemporary lifelong learning policy is increasingly dominated by skills discourse. Skills are becoming a focus for lifelong education researchers (e.g. Pavić & Černja Rajter, Citation2025) and we have questioned the skills discourse in our editorials (e.g. Milana et al., Citation2025; Brandi et al. Citation2023). This time around we address a trend in policy to conceptualise lifelong learning in terms of ‘skills matching’ (e.g. ILO, Citation2020; OECD, Citation2024; WEF, Citation2025a).