Estonia on the backdrop of the European Union states: country-specific institutional context and lifelong learning

The paper focuses on how the institutional design of education systems shapes opportunities for lifelong learning. Our main aim is to reveal to what extent Estonia, as a new member state, is a specific case for the EU. We expect the Estonian case to diverge from the patterns of links, between education systems and participation in non-formal education, predicted by the theories and characteristics of the old EU member-states. The authors use aggregate data about participation in non-formal learning in a number of European Union countries, based on an ad hoc module included in the EU Labour Force Survey 2003.