ABSTRACT
The development of adult education in western capitalist countries has been dominated by continuous expansion and an ever-increasing emphasis on the importance of the so-called general or soft qualifications. These types of qualification are seen as a crucial parameter for competition on the labour market, and as individual necessities for the management of daily life in modern society, which is complex and rapidly changing. The objective qualification demand in companies and in society has shifted from more specific qualifications towards more general areas of understanding, attitudes and personality. The demand for qualification is, at least to some extent, identical with a demand for the development of whole, mature individuals who can manage their choices and their lives both at and outside work. It has become more difficult to establish the borderline between vocational and non-vocational orientation in education and in everyday life.
