Pursuant to Article 2 of the Law on Adult Education, the providers of adult education services are:
a) adult education institution is a school, higher education institution, as well as specialized adult education institution;
b) an adult education institution, a legal or natural person that has registered an adult education activity;
Adult education activities (Article 5 of the Law on Adult Education), can be performed by the public and private institutions for adult education, training centres, social partners, job providers, associations and individual trainers that fulfill the provisions stipulated in the relevant laws. Hence, the current providers of adult education services are:
- Public and private specialized institutions for adult education: open universities, civic universities, workers universities, educational consulting companies, training centres, centres for ICT training, career guidance centres, primary schools for adult education;
- Secondary schools;
- Labour and trade unions;
- Job providers;
- Chambers and associations;
- Professional bodies and
- Universities.
There are other institutions and organizations, which in addition to their main function provide certain adult education and training activities, such as: libraries, museums, publishing companies, cultural centres, etc. Larger private companies and corporations often provide for their employees contemporary training or other forms of further education.
In the context of the verification process, by law, providers usually cooperate with the Adult Education Center (AED) and the Ministry of Education and Science (MES).
In accordance with Article 7 paragraph 1 indent 4, as well as Article 22 of the Law on Adult Education, the MoES shall verify the institutions and institutions for adult education;
Pursuant to Articles 21a and 21b, the Adult Education Center shall verify the special adult education programs. With the AEC’s Rulebook on the Manner of Verification of Specific Adult Education Programs from 2016, the programs are verified for a period of 3 years. The Law on Adult Education does not contain a provision that stipulates the validity of the program, but it is regulated by the Rulebook of the Adult Education Center
Verification of programs and institutions for non-formal adult education is in line with Article 21 of the Law on Adult Education. These programs, as well as their providers, can be found in the Database of providers and programs for non-formal adult education, on the website of AEC.
The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) keeps records of the number and type of programs of verified institutions and institutions for implementation of adult education programs. According to the data obtained from the Department of Secondary Education, Adult Education and Lifelong Learning at the MoES: the total number of verified providers in 2017 having valid programs is 62 subjects, while the total number of programs is 165. The largest number of verified programs are implemented in Skopje (75), followed by Bitola (23) and Tetovo (16).
Adult Education Entity | Number of users |
Institutions of formal education | 16 746 |
Non-formal education and training institutions | 42 058 |
Commercial institutions where informal learning and training are not the main activity | 6 309 |
Employer | 30 654 |
Employers' organizations, chambers of commerce | 11 236 |
Non-profit organizations (eg cultural associations, political parties) | 2 739 |
Individuals (eg students giving private lessons) | 2 100 |
Non-commercial institutions where non-formal learning and training are not the main activity (eg libraries, museums, ministries) | 5 517 |
Another | 4 204 |
Total | 122 567 (Age 25-64) |
Source: Adult Education Survey (2016).
The government supports the unemployed through the implementation of the Active Employment Policy which includes partial funding for their education and training. Other disadvantaged groups also have access to subsidised education. Their motivation, however, is quite low.