This paper analyzes the transformation of supplementary education serving as a component of the Russian system of continuous education and life-long learning. Changes in socio-cultural situation together with scientific and technological progress have lead to the need of strict requirements to the level of general and vocational education. An increased demand for highly qualified professionals revealed certain deficiencies of the existing education system and emphasized the need to review the structure of supplementary education, as well as the quality of pre-university tutorials developed in the late XX century. This paper studies the system of national pre-university tutorials and aims at identifying the role and place of pre-university training in the Russian system of continuous education. The authors use a structural and functional method to analyze the transformation of such concepts as «out-of-school education», «supplementary education» and to identify the periods in the development of the education component under study. The authors conclude that despite the long history of the pre-university training as a phenomenon, its role and place in the Russian system of continuous education and life-long learning have not been thouroughly defined and reflected in the regulations and descriptions of the federal requirements and the federal state educational standards. Thus, functional uncertainty determined by the lack of a clear understanding of the purpose and objectives of the component under study is the reason for certain inconsistences in ensuring the continuity of pre-university and vocational training and developing the objectives of secondary comprehensive education and supplementary education institutions. The problem has consequences not only for the students themselves and for the quality of their training, but also for educators and teachers of supplementary education institutions whose activities are to be evaluated with a set of criteria to be yet developed. The material presented in the paper are of certain proactical value for researchers studying the development of pre-university tutorials, as well as for professionals concerned with ensuring the continuity of pre-university training and lifelong learning.