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

programme is not recognised by the relevant national education or equivalent authorities. It includes 

structured programmes that are not recognised by the relevant national education or equivalent 

authorities, usually because the provider is not recognised as being part of the country’s regular 

education system

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 (e.g. professional organisations, private commercial companies, non-

governmental organisations). 

If a non-formal programme leads (either automatically or via a validation procedure) to a qualification 

that the relevant national education or equivalent authorities recognise as equivalent to a formal 

qualification, this does not necessarily imply that the programme itself should be considered as 

formal. 

In order to classify a learning activity organised by a foreign educational institution or delivered as 

‘distance learning’ by an institution based outside the reporting country (for a household survey this 

would be the country of residence of the respondent/individual), it is important to look at the nature of 

the programme itself. The activity should be considered as formal if the programme is recognised by 

the relevant national education or equivalent authorities. Otherwise the programme is non-formal 

education.