According to the preamble of Act LXXVII of 2013 on Adult Education, the aims of the Act are “to make Hungarian inhabitants capable of meeting the challenges of economic, cultural and technological development; enter the world of work successfully; succeed in life and have an improved living quality from adult learning, it is necessary to have better organization in vocational, foreign language and state-supported training and improve the quality of the content and reinforce the supervision of implementation”.

The main targets of adult education and training are:

• encouragement of adults to obtain missing educational attainment and/or qualifications in order to make an informed choice of vocation and qualification that will qualify them to fill in all positions of one or more vocation;
• to provide adults’ training for vocational and partial vocational qualifications
• to develop economy and the competitiveness of knowledge
• to introduce publicly funded, competency based and vocational training programmes for groups disadvantaged in the labour market, especially for low-qualified adults in order to improve their employability;
• to provide and improve social cohesion, and the inclusion of disadvantaged groups to grant equal opportunities;
• to boost language competencies to meet the challenges of economic, cultural and technological development
• contribution to meeting the new knowledge demands of the information society;
• to promote vocational adult training;
• to operate a labour market forecast system to give and share information about the status of the labour market.

In 2019 and 2020, there were significant changes in the fields of adult education and training, and vocational education and training. The legislator aspires for the opportunity of the adults to participate in a knowledge-based practical learning, to give them professional knowledge adapted to the present age and to make them easier to enter the labour market based on their learning outcomes. During the development of the new training system, in accordance with the transitional provisions, in the following years, adult education and training is running parallel by considering the new and the old regulations.

Adult learning in Hungary

Adult education

Adult education is the school-based, formal education provided for adult learners. In this sense, adult education is a type of training where „the student receives school-based education matching the student’s workplace, family or other activities, as well as his/her knowledge and age.” As the above activity is mainly organised by general educational institutions, the General Education Act (Act CXC of 2011) regulates it. “Basic education, secondary education including school-based vocational education and higher education are integral parts built on one another of the educational system. Public education can take the form of adult education at any school level”. As this activity is basically organised in public education institutions, the Public Education Act regulates it. The Act has a separate part for the special provisions on adult education (Section 60 of the National Public Act). Education for adults studying in higher education is subject to the Higher Education Act (Act CCIV of 2011). Higher education opportunities and environment for adults are discussed in the 7th Chapter.

The purpose of the laws on education and training has been defined as the following: the right to learn must be lifelong for any individual. The state should create the legal frameworks for adults learning, operate its institutional system and provide the financing background. The state should also help adults stay in their jobs or acquire new ones while promoting the development of adults' constructive lives.

Presently, students may start a new academic year only in adult education from the year they reach the age of 17 in the case of an eight-grade primary school, or when they reach the age of 25 in the case of a secondary school. In secondary schools, students may continue their studies within the frame of adult education from the academic year when they reach the age of 16. In Hungary, education is obligatory until the end of the academic year in which the student reaches the age of 16.

School-based vocational education is running since September 2020, which gives state-recognised secondary school qualification and vocational qualification after a successful vocational examination, in both vocational school (szakképző iskola) and Technicum. Acquisition of a vocation from the Register of Vocational Occupations(Szakmajegyzék) is only possible in vocational education. The Register of Vocational Occupations is regulated by Annex 1 of Government Decree 12/2020 (II.7) on the implementation of the VET Act. A translation key between the former National Vocational Qualifications Register (NVQR) and the new Register of Vocational Occupations helps to navigate between the old and new professions and sectors.

Provisions for students with special educational needs and young adults with disabilities

There are different regulations for SEN students in public education: they may start a new academic year in adult education the year they reach the age of 19 in the case of an eight-grade primary school, or when they reach the age of 27 in the case of a secondary school. The compulsory schooling of a SEN student may be extended until they reach the age of 23.

As the Adult Education Act declares, “the stressed duty of the VET is to take into account the special needs of SEN pupils, minors attending to training, adults with disabilities attending to training and pupils with social, learning and behavioural difficulties, to promote their most effective development in accordance with their individual abilities to build up the fullest possible opportunities for social integration.” The benefits provided to SEN pupils and minors participating in training shall also be applied to adults with disability participating in the training.

Kilátó (Viewpoint) Piarist Career Guidance and Labour Market Development Center is an institution that main objective is to support the career orientation and work placement of young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Through this activity, the institution provides them with personalized services, like guidance, mentoring, career guidance activities, information aids and training. Their goal is to help parents, teachers, career counsellors and employers alike, in addition to building a complex career path choice and development for young people, based on their specific needs.

Adult training

The term adult training refers to organising adult learning outside the school system. This includes vocational training built on the VET Act (Act LXXX of 2019) as well as organised training aimed to form and develop competences. Adult training is qualified as a service, so the relevant provisions of Act LXXVI of 2009 on the General Rules of Taking up and Pursuit of Service Activity also have reference to it.        The participants of the training do not have a student status within the training institution. The legal relationship is determined by the adult training contract between the participants and the adult training institution. Adult training legal relationship may be established for services of organised education and training or for services related to adult training activities.

Labour market focused aims of adult training are:

• to prepare for a vocational qualification or a partial vocational qualification;
• to improve people's labour market position, to continue professional training, to facilitate the acquisition of valuable competences in the labour market and the acquisition of a higher level of professional qualifications;
• to give extensive information for adults in the labour market forecast system;
• to support the unemployed to re-enter the labour market and to strengthen employment status, job performance, the vocational trainings’ success through employment-friendly training courses;
• to facilitate job search by teaching additional skills through complementary training courses (i.e. teaching career and vocational guidance, or learning other competences needed for certain jobs).

From 1 September 2020, the first aim (vocational qualification or preparing for a partial vocational qualification) has a high priority. The largest group of trainings are vocational qualifications that can be obtained in the framework of VET institutions or in adult training institutions. The list of vocational trainings and qualifications is not issued by law. The IKK Innovative Training Support Centre publishes the programme requirements of vocational trainings on their website.

The participant of the training receives a certificate after completing the vocational training. This is a prerequisite for a qualifying examination that can be taken at a trainer-independent, state-accredited examination centre. After completing the qualifying examination successfully, the examinee acquires a state-recognised certificate of vocational qualification. Thus, the training institutions and the examination centres are becoming separated. Vocational institutions are qualified as accredited examination centres until 31 December 2025, according to the temporary provisions of the Act on Vocational Education and Trainig.

Under the effective law, from 1 September 2020 an adult training activity is subjet to notifocation. The notification can be filed to the Pest County Government Office, which is the state administrative body of the adult education.

From 1 September 2020, all adult education activities that are partly or fully funded by the state budget or by a European Union grant, or if these are vocational trainings or prepare students for a partial vocational qualification have a permitting obligation. Permissions are not granted for training programmes, but at the institutional level for adult training activities by the Pest County Government Office.

Functions of adult education and training

In Hungary, adult education and training is multifunctional:

• it serves as second-chance education (to provide missing basic qualification and/or a first vocational qualification).
• it also serves to provide further (higher level) qualifications or vocational qualification and to ensure continuous professional development.
• it provides help during unemployment, or for obtaining “marketable” professional knowledge within employment, before becoming unemployed,
• creates the chance of social inclusion and social involvement of disadvantaged and disabled people,
• it meets intellectual needs of adult learners that are not included in the curricula of school-based education,
• complementary trainings provide knowledge, e.g. language skills, computer user skills that do not provide a qualification, or develop personal skills e.g. self-knowledge, mental and communication trainings.