Both central and local authorities participate in shaping and implementing adult education policy. At the national level the Seimas (parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania, the government, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and other ministries, governmental institutions, and institutions accountable to the ministries all have roles to play. The municipalities act at the local level. The Law on Education and the Law on Non-formal Adult Education and Continuing Education describe all the functions of the education policy, including the adult education policy.

The Seimas performs the following functions:

• Initiates, debates and adopts laws and other legal acts that regulate the adult education system.
• Performs parliamentary scrutiny of the formation, coordination and implementation of adult education policy.

The government performs the following functions:

• Approves national development programmes, planning non-formal adult education and continuous learning measures
• Coordinates the activities of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, other ministries and government agencies on adult education issues
• Establishes, reorganises, liquidates and restructures state colleges, educational institutions, whose legal form is a public establishment, and when necessary – government agencies, sets up institutions under the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and assigns to this Ministry the rights and duties for the institution under the ministry (with the exception of the adoption of decisions on the reorganisation and liquidation of such institutions)
• Approves the Regulations of the Lithuanian Non-formal Adult Education Council
• Establishes the order for the quality assurance of non-formal adult education and continuing education.

The Minister of Education, Science and Sport performs the following functions:

• In consultation with the Lithuanian Non-formal Adult Education Council and other social partners, draws up national development programmes, in which non-formal adult education and continuous education measures are planned, organised, coordinated and monitored
• Establishes quality assurance procedures for non-formal adult education and continuing learning programmes published in the Individual Learning Accounts System
• Approves the composition of the Lithuanian Non-formal Adult Education Council. 

A representative institution of the municipality (the Council), that considers the national development programmes approved by the government, the needs of the municipality’s residents, employers, and other social partners, approves the municipality’s Action Plan for Non-formal Adult Education and Continuing Learning, and appoints a coordinator to implement this.

Society participates in the shaping and supervision of adult education policy through the Lithuanian Non-formal Adult Education Council that was reactivated by the government in 2014. The council is an expert body in Lithuania that provides consultation and considers the main prospects for the development of non-formal adult education and strategic directions in non-formal adult education. It also analyses projects for the development of the system of non-formal adult education and coordinates the actions of adult education institutions. The council consists of representatives from state and municipality institutions, organisations representing the interests of employers and employees, as well as NGOs from the non-formal adult education and continuing learning field. The Lithuanian Association of Adult Education (LAAE) – a social organisation founded in 1992, is also an active participant in the adult education policy process. In cooperation with Lithuanian and foreign adult educators and institutions, it promotes lifelong learning among the general public. LAAE assists with the creation of the network of cooperating adult education institutions, the provision of information and programme exchanges, the development of joint projects and the upgrading of the andragogic qualification skills of its members.