This article discusses the substantial changes in the system of adult education in Russia, in connection with a qualitative transformation of ideas about the possibility and necessity to learn new professions. The transition to the market economy has brought about a situation in which many people, both those who have obtained a professional education and those who have not, are not in demand in the labor market. As a result, more people of different ages have decided to learn new professions, both in the form of obtaining a second diploma. The urgency of the problem of educating adults has become alarming with difficulties of finding jobs and rising unemployment. Here, the author examines the emergence of andragogical technology in Russia and the theoretical purpose of adult education on the basis of life experience. The author concludes that the content of the education comes to be the personally acquired form of life experience and the result of the education is reflected in the ability of the learners to construct the image of their future on the basis of their life experience. (Contains 4 references.)