In the Nordic countries education is considered an essential, universal civil right to be offered free of charge. The entire education system is uniform and monopolized by the government. At the same time the proportion of the working population, women included, is high. In post-modern, meritocratic, Finnish society high education and good workplace are up to standard of a good citizen. To acquire education is considered everyone`s duty.However, some have always been left in the shadows of society due to their lack of education. The boundary between educated and non-educated has often been drawn in relation to power, influence, status or position in the labour market. Nowadays education is an indispensable condition to be qualified on the labour market, and simultaneously lack of education is considered to be a clear indication of marginalisation in working life. Those with an inadequate education are increasingly situated in the uncertain work places of the secondary sector or are left whit out any work at all.In this paper, Finnish workers and unemployed with poor education are studied. Special attention is paid to their attitudes towards education, and how the lack of education has influenced their lives. The data consists of 21 interviews of workers on textile industry (typical secondary sector working place) and 94 biographies of unemployed workers with poor education (poor education is by definition basic education or less).Why they have not acquired proper education? They had the same educational opportunities as the majority, but they were unable to take advantage of it. In this study two main reasons have been found. The first is that their families had no financial resources to educate their children. The second was the lack of interest in education. Today poor education is a great personal risk. Especially those without vocational education are in an extremely weak position when attempting to enter the labour market. This is the reason why all interviewed workers see good education as essential for their own children.The main conclusion of the paper is that in the 1990´s and 2000´s society is more and more dependent on educated workers. Secondary sector can offer work only for a very small number of non-educated workers. Without proper education it is very hard to find a job and keep it. Poorly educated workers see that they have no opportunity to change their workplace or move on in their career. They are heavily dependent on their present jobs, which are often unsteady, badly paid, undervalued and irregular. Low salary means low living standards. Low socio-economic status is also an indication of marginalisation.