The Participation of Non-Profit Organisations in Adult Education

The multitude of civil organizations created a fine yet rather strong structure, which has become an autonomous socio-economic factor itself, the so-called the non-profit sector in the course of time. For the last one hundred odd years the civil associations - besides their role played in economy - have been involved in adult educational activities for the sake of promoting self-help and more social opportunities. The book gives an overview about the ways the non-profit organizations are offering adult educational activities. For the very first time in Hungary, Maria Arapovics offers a full picture of the world of adult educational non-profit organizations. Besides introducing the trends in present day adult education of Hungary, the study provides ample data on the organizations registered in the registrar of adult education as well as on those which have met the high standards of institutional and/or program accreditation. On the base of a survey executed by the author on 139 adult educational organizations she charcterizes the programs and services of the actors in the field, with detailed data on their human, material and financial resources. We learn that there are features of the non-profit adult educator agencies which give them a special character which is differing from the features of the agencies of the budgetary and business sector. The novelty of the study is a systematic classification of the adult educational organizations, worked out by the author. She differentiates the field into two basic types of adult educational organizations on the. basis of their actual policies revealed by the survey: the first offering courses launched according to their commitment to the classic set of civil values, while the other operating according to the idea of competition, services and market orientation. The summary of the research is followed by the closing proposals of the author, formulated on the base of the findings of her survey.