The cornerstone of unity

47 ADULT EDUCATION 
More than one million Finns 
– almost one out of five – participate annually in non-formal adult education. This 
figure is unsurpassed worldwide. Finns are also among the top in the results of the recent survey of adult skills 
of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).
Non-formal adult education consists of voluntary amateur studies that are based on the liberal arts and help 
to understand society, government, and civil society 
– courses and lectures on social policy, ecology, history, 
and economics, for example. It is offered by adult education centres, folk high schools (boarding schools in 
Finland), open universities and summer universities, “study centres”, and sports institutes. The training ranges 
from short and intensive courses to ones that last for an entire academic year and from part-time to full-time 
studi
es. The institutions receive government aid that is 50 to 65% of each kind of institution’s estimated 
expenses per student.
Except in Finland and other Nordic countries, non-formal adult education is very sporadically organised in 
Europe and is usually a kind of professional training. It therefore does not get the attention it deserves in the 
EU’s education policy, for example.
Adult education in Finland and the other Nordic countries is much more institutionalised than elsewhere in the 
world. Non-formal adult education has a good reputation and is very popular.
Non-formal adult education has deep roots. Various movements striving to educate common people already 
arose in the 19th century, of which the most important were the efforts of the church, the temperance movement, 
the political labour movement, and the Nordic adult education movement. They helped prepare the foundations 
of the modern democratic and fair society with equal rights for all.
In 2014, 313 institutions provided non-formal adult education in Finland, including 187 adult education centres, 
80 folk high schools (boarding schools), 20 summer universities, 14 sports institutes, and 12 “study centres”. 
So far, these institutions exist all over the country. Everyone in Finland lives within reach of a non-formal adult 
education institution.
These institutions are based on local education needs and organize amateur studies in all Finnish 
municipalities. Popular subjects include languages, genealogy, handicrafts, philosophy, and the arts.

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Some folk high schools are national, some are regional. Due to mergers, some of them have several 
campuses and other premises. They have a lot of experience with transition phase training for young people and 
adults, for which their boarding school format is well suited.
Folk high schools have also begun to provide immigrant students with training. In the academic year 2012
–
2013, 20% of the long-term students of folk high schools were immigrants. Half of all folk high schools provide 
training for immigrants.
All Finnish universities provide open university education, which anyone can attend regardless of their age, 
academic background, or aims. The university faculties are responsible for the teaching. Non-formal adult 
education institutions organize the open universities together with one or several faculties. All summer universities 
also have open university education.
Ten of the sports institutes have national responsibilities and four have regional ones. The goal is to support 
the education of those population groups that seldom participate in any education or training. In the years 2010 
and 2011, about 80,000 people from the target groups received training vouchers. 
The “study centres” (
opintokeskukset
) are national training institutes that organize courses in different parts of 
Finland. Their main target groups are young people and adults that are active in NGOs such as sports, cultural, 
environmental, and political organisations. These usually part-time courses produce organisational and guidance 
know-how. 
What are current trends in adult education? Under the pressure of neo-liberal economic and education 
policies, adult education has also ended up more and more often defending its importance and even its right to 
exist. According to Prof. Jyri Mannine
n’s recent study, money invested in non-formal adult education produces 
benefits worth at least three times as much as the investments. One euro invested in adult education centres 
seems to produce a benefit of 3 to 6 euros! The investments in adult education produce savings in social and 
health expenses.
So non-formal adult education is beneficial to individuals and society. Research and everyday experience 
show that non-formal adult education courses produce new skills, friends, networks, tolerance, and a new kind 
of resilience. Learning new things and skills in such courses promotes all kinds of well-being. The increase in 
social and educational capital and the awakening of social responsibility that happen during adult education 
are also key elements of a well functioning democracy.
Non-formal adult education institutions function as cultural centres and provide citizens with education and 
the skills necessary for enlightened citizenship, but this has included continually less knowledge about society. 
What we need to ask ourselves in this time of concentration of economic power and of increasing financial and 
educational inequality is whether non-formal adult education and adult education in general have forgotten the 
goals of changing society and the individual that they still had at the beginning of the 20th century.
The future challenge of these institutions is to inspire the less educated to participate in different kinds of 
adult education. Concern about the splitting of society 
– into well educated, active citizens and less educated, 
socially excluded citizens 
– must lead to active reform and development of non-formal adult education. A 
counterforce to the current trends needs to be provided: true cultivation, caring, and civil society. Lifelong 
learning for Finland and the world.
Jukka Gustafsson 
– Minister of Education 2011–2013,
Member of Parliament 1987
–