Polish continuing education (CE) includes education, further education, and professional development in and out of school; in day, evening, or weekend courses; and distance education. The state, workplaces, grants, and foreign assistance provide financing. A variety of organizations cooperate to provide continuing education. High-risk groups receive preferential treatment in training for the unemployed. Barriers to CE are the following: (1) legislation; (2) varied and liquid market of non-public, out-of-school education institutions; (3) discrepancy between skills taught in school and those required vocationally; (4) inadequate involvement of social partners in training issues; (5) difficulties in diagnosing local training needs; (6) passivity by the unemployed; (7) access; and (8) no adult educator education system. International assistance initiatives address training the unemployed and providing vocational guidance. Current directions of development indicate the state's role in creating CE legislation and direct financing of schools for adults. CE as part of the active labor market policy involves training the unemployed, handicapped, and farmers for non-agricultural employment and education for small business development. Examples of CE as an aid in restructuring of the economy are restructuring of the mining industry; trimodule training for vocational activization of the unemployed; and development of vocational information resources and guidance methods for supporting the unemployed and job seekers. (Contains 24 footnotes.) (YLB)