ABSTRACT
Summary: The author cautions against the arbitrariness of the distinction between eastern and western European countries. Educational policies and legislation, as well as educational experiences, are taken into consideration, noting that most of the countries are concerned with lifelong education at a global policy level and no longer at a sectoral level. The international, as well as the technical and social division of labour, is stressed in its relationship with education. Several indicators are proposed to evaluate the european educational systems (eg participation of workers' children at all levels of education and abolition of rank between the so-called manual disciplines and the so-called intellectual disciplines). Worker and union education is considered as well as the relationship between the system of education and the system of production. The configuration of new types of educators that exist, but are not recognized by the formal education system, is explored. The article ends with the hypothesis that the non-economic dimension of education is one of the most relevant features of European education trends.
