Work-related Informal Learning
“Informal learning” is the most common way that people acquire knowledge and skills in Canadian workplaces. Finding innovative and practical ways to better support workers’ informal learning is a key preoccupation of forward looking organizations of all sizes. But while our theoretical knowledge about informal learning has made great strides over the last number of years, approaches to actively promote, support and evaluate work-related informal learning are only starting to take root in Canadian workplaces.
While formal and more structured approaches to workplace training tend to be more visible to workplace decision makers, few understand the importance of informal learning and even fewer actively support it and use it to reinforce more formal, structured training.
In Work-related Informal Learning: Research and Practice in the Canadian Context, we help workplace decisions makers:
- Understand what “informal learning” means and why it can be difficult to identify.
- Appreciate the different types of types of informal learning and informal learning situations.
- Learn what Canadian case studies reveal about this important dimension of workplace learning.
- Learn how informal learning relates to and supports other types of learning.
This resource provides employers, trainers and educators, labour unions and other professional groups concerned with workplace skills development a starting point to actively incorporate informal learning into the learning toolbox of the Canadian workplace.
The full report is available for download by clicking the link at the bottom of this page. Our overview publication provides the non-expert with a brief and practical exposure to the topic.
This project was funded in 2008 by the Canadian Council on Learning’s Work and Learning Knowledge Centre and was headed by the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment. Dr. Christine Wihak was the lead investigator and author, and Gail Hall was the leader of stakeholder consultations that supported this research.
For more information on this project or to organize a knowledge sharing activity on work-related informal learning please contact: info@workplaceskills.ca
