G u I d e L i n e s m a n u a L s a n d g u I d e L i n e s

Private lessons can even be 

considered ‘formal education’ if the national education system 

recognises home-schooling and the programme is recognised as formal by the relevant 

national education or equivalent authorities.

 

 

Training received during military service may include 

courses. How should these be treated? 

Under the CLA, these courses should be classified as non-formal training.

 

 

1.6.2. Formal versus non-formal education and training 

There were several conflicts in the definitions of the concept of formal education and training 

between the 2006 version of the CLA and other reference documents on education statistics, 

including the ISCED 2011 and the operational manual for the UOE

26

 data collection on 

enrolments/entrants. 

                                                           

 

 

26

  Joint UNESCO-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) administrative data collection on formal education systems. 

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1 

General concepts and definitions 

18 

Classification of learning activities 

– manual 

These conflicts resulted in the following two discrepancies:  



 

the reference to the national framework of qualifications (NFQ) as defining formal education 

in the 2006 CLA is absent from the ISCED; 



 

the reference to minimum duration criteria for programmes to qualify as formal education in 

the UOE is absent from the 2006 CLA.  

This made it difficult to correctly set the boundaries between the two forms of education and training 

in the 2006 version of the CLA. 

In order to further align the CLA with ISCED 2011, the direct reference to the NFQ is removed