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Adult Education Centres may appear under various Finnish names, such as kansalaisopisto, työväenopisto, vapaaopisto, aikuisopisto or simply opisto. However, all these centres operate under the same law and have, in practice, the same kind of programmes but have kept their historical names.

Their programme is for anyone who wants to explore new educational areas and develop their abilities, for personal and professional reasons, for a reasonable investment of time and money. Measured by numbers of students and teaching hours, adult education centres are the largest single publicly supported adult education institution in Finland. Teaching is offered at over 10 000 sites, with 650 000 adults and young people participating annually. They are guided by 30 000 hourly-paid teachers and over 1000 full-time teachers. About 100 000 courses are offered each year, ranging from introductory courses lasting a couple of hours to longer-term educational programmes.