Recent discussion on social change has emphasised the phenomena of individualisation, fragmentation and increasing social risks which have caused young people to develope their heterogenous and multiple identities. These changes of youth field seems to emphasise the importance of non-formal education as educational thinking which cherishes the multiplicity of learning environments, a learner-centered approach and an openness to new forms of learning relationship. Our postmodern societies also need new active citizenship not only as the political rights and responsibilities of citizens but also as their status and role in the economic, social and cultural area of life. Active citizenship and non-formal education are closely related concepts. For young people to become active citizens, an educational input combining formal and non-formal learning are required. The original version of non-formal education emerged in 1968 (Coombs 1968). It arose in the context of thewidespread feeling that school educationwas failed. Today, there is a new interest in the concept of non-formal education. It comes froma very different arena - western post-industrial societies, and froma very different source - the discourse of lifelong learning/education. In this study, the characteristics of non-formal education in terms of bottom-up control system, learner's self-directed participation, contextual formation of educational purposes, and process based teaching-learning processes were analysed. It showed the possibility that non-formal education could redress undesirable qualities of formal education. Conclusionally, formal and non-formal education are not to stand in opposition to each other, dichotomy ruled. For youth to become active citizens, we have to use both types of education-formal and non-formal for more inclusive, flexible, applicable education to the changing real world.