The roles of educators in adult education are constantly changing, and thus becoming more complex. More often they are called mentors, counselors, motivators, evaluators and learning assistants, that is, roles for which it is inevitable to possess a wide range of generic and specific competencies. In the discussions on the competencies of educators in adult education, there is a clear agreement on the need to develop andragogical educational studies and competency frameworks for educators in adult education, which still do not exist in the Republic of Croatia. The scarce number of conducted research on this topic in the Republic of Croatia confirms that andragogical practice lags behind theoretical knowledge and that further research efforts are needed to determine the competencies needed in working with adults. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to examine and analyze the attitudes of employees and part-time employees of adult education institutions about the key competencies needed to work with adults and to determine their attitudes about the importance of individual groups of competencies. 91 respondents participated in the survey, and data was collected during June and July 2021 through an online survey. The results of the research suggest that employees and part-time employees of adult education institutions consider generic and specific competencies necessary for working with adults and that they understand their importance. Specifically, respondents believe that working with adults requires social competencies, counseling competencies, designing and understanding the process of learning, teaching and evaluation, competencies for the development of educational programs, competencies of using new technologies and competencies for continuous professional development.