Formal education: the hierarchically structured, chronologically graded 'education system', running from primary school through the university and including, in addition to general academic studies, a variety of specialized programmes and institutions for full-time technical and professional training.

Informal education: the truly lifelong process whereby every individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educative influences and resources in his or her environment - from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media.

Non-formal education: any organized educational activity outside the established formal system - whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activity - that is intended to serve identifiable learning clienteles and learning objectives.

Non-formal education is an education out of the formal, institutional scope, characterized by

• organized and planed educational activities encouraging individual and social studying,
• gaining different skills and knowledge, attitude and values development,
• taking place out of range of formal education,
• complementary to the formal education,
• the participation is voluntary,

Non-formal education became part of the international discourse on education policy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It can be seen as related to the concepts of recurrent and lifelong learning associated with four basic characteristic:

• Relevance to the needs of disadvantaged groups
• Concern with specific categories of person
• A focus on clearly defined purposes
• Flexibility in organization and methods

Today, when things are changing, term of lifetime employment is being replaced by lifetime employability. However, continuous employment is being accomplished by a continuous learning.

While long-term employment qualification is being fulfilled by both formal and non-formal education, the long-term qualification for other life roles is fulfilled mostly through non-formal education, self-education and informal education.