The purpose of this article is to present the changes that have taken place in Polish adult education in the years 1989-2013 under the influence of multiple factors, i.e. social, economic, political and those relating to civilization on the whole. This article is an attempt to answer the following questions: does modern adult education in Poland meet the expectations of society?; is it a driving force behind modernization?; and--does it respond to the needs of the modern labour market? These issues have been presented in an international context, in the light of statistical data and from the perspective of original reading of the literature of the subject.