Introduction: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in the post-war period and since then it has been working to combat the illiteracy of children, the youth and adults. A specific area in this context is the issue of second-chance education.
Purpose: The paper analyzes these UNESCO activities in the field of second-chance education, which allows individual target groups to obtain elementary education, respectively professional knowledge and skills for finding a job in the historical transformations as well as at present.
Methods: The main criterion was the perception of second-chance education in individual stages of educational reality, for which content analysis and comparison of the final reports of UNESCO conferences, its current educational programmes, as well as specific examples of educational activities were used.
Conclusions: Second chance education, with its specific position, content focus, target groups and organization, has become an essential part of educational systems not only in developing countries, but also in developed countries, because in every society, this issue is a current challenge for the educational reality.
