In Finnish educational policies there is a strong emphasis on lifelong learning. The present educational system with its comprehensive schools and university-trained teachers has been successful: Finland came out top in the OECD's latest PISA study of learning skills among 15-year-olds. Also in adult education Finland with her Nordic pattern is often seen as a model country where more than half of adult population participates yearly in adult education. In the information age, the issues related to education are more multi-levelled, manifold and complex than ever before. Teaching faces new challenges and demands due to multiculturalism, widening use of technology, the change in teacher's authority and intense structural changes. People are drawn to densely populated areas and thus the questions of arranging education both in cities and in sparsely populated areas call for new solutions. The distorted age structure of the population will change the educational systems and networks, and the significance of adult education and educational technology will increase. At the same time, there is a tendency in Europe towards unification of national educational systems in accordance with the Bologna Declaration. In the ideal of lifelong learning the responsibility of gaining (continuous) education has been placed on individuals. From the perspective of a learner the change towards a knowledge-based society demands higher levels of formal education and readiness to continuously update one's skills in order to be capable of independent decision- making and problem-solving. From the societal point of view social capital is a crucial factor together with individual identity capital to negotiate life passages with the possible support of professionals.