Adult education is an important part of the life of every individual and community because the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies ensures the progress of society. Every state that strives for the development and creation of a knowledge society is aware of the importance of providing educational opportunities for people at all periods of human life. Croatia is slowly but surely recognizing the importance of adult education and the concept of lifelong learning, and enables individuals to be educated and trained through formal, non-formal and informal programs. Given its prevalence, the main task of this thesis is to present through a theoretical framework its development, current situation, institutions in Croatia that implement it, existing programs and challenges it faces. Furthermore, a qualitative research was conducted in order to examine opinions of students of the teacher's module on adult education. The results of the research indicate that the participants are familiar with the concept of adult education but half of them doesn’t seem them self working with adults. In addition, most of the participants are not familiar with the science that deals with adult education, but they show good familiarity with institutions that conduct adult education. The most common adult education institution mentioned by the participants is the Faculty of humanities and social sciences in Rijeka which implements a program for the third age. Important figures in the process of adult education are also educators (teachers) who work with the adults. The participants believe that educators need to possess the following qualities: patience, understanding for learners, communication skills, empathy, sense of humor, flexibility and organizational skills. Respondents also gave their opinion on the current state of adult education in Croatia and their opinion on its future. The results of the research showed that the majority of participants have a negative opinion about the current state of adult education in Croatia. A small number of participants believe that adult education is currently in a favorable position because it offers a large number of programs and courses. According to the respondents, the future of adult education in Croatia is positive and they think that adult education will become increasingly important. It can be concluded that adult education is becoming an increasingly important component in the field of education and that its importance is beginning to be affirmed among young people.