THE NON-FORMAL EDUCATION AS A TOOL FOR EMPLOYMENT CASE STUDY: REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA.

The objective of the paper is to analyze the current situation of the non-formal education in Macedonia with a comparative overview of practices in the Kingdom of Sweden in which non-formal education has a long tradition, and its impact on the youth population in the Republic of Macedonia. One of the main topics of the discussions today is the role of formal education in the process of the development of the society. In the new millennium in many countries the question is how much classical formal education system can respond to accelerating technological and socioeconomic changes in society. It is evident that in the modern society, there are emerging institutions and organizations that offer various educational activities that can be seen as, substitution, competition, opposition or dulcification of the formal education process. These educational activities are known as non-formal education, as an integral part of the concept of lifelong learning, which enables young people and adults to acquire skills, competencies and attitudes to adapt to the environment subject to constant changes. The acquisition of these skills, competencies and attitudes needed is the willingness of the individual to show interest in participating in this type of training outside of the realm of the formal education system. The paper is analyzing the situation in the non-formal education in Macedonia, through analyzes the European legislation in this area, the legal framework based on previous research in this area and focusing on several segments: • Recognition of non-formal education in Macedonia; • The impact of these programs in addressing the problem of social inclusion mostly in the young population; • The role of NGOs in organizing programs in this area; It is known that the NGO sector or nongovernmental organizations that work with the community and young people are the main driver of these programs. The most important segment of the analysis is the impact of this type of education in alleviating the problem of unemployment of young population in Macedonia. Finally, non-formal education is only added value to the development of the individual, but no doubt has an effect on the community level. Moreover, non-formal education contributes to establishing and identifying the need of those skills or competencies that are important to the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]