Guild Research Library

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Published Date: 09/11/2006

The Informal Learning Research Report 2006

Many training professionals today are realizing that formal training and development programs represent only one part of the learning mix in their organizations because of the pervasive, yet intangible role that informal learning plays in their employees’ acquisition of job-related knowledge and skills. As a result, there seems to be increasing interest in encouraging, promoting, and supporting informal learning in the workplace, especially using e-Learning. Yet, there does not seem to be a good deal of know-how and commonly accepted best practices about how to provide for this.

As a result, The Guild Research Committee decided to conduct a study that would explore four aspects of informal learning among the Guild community: common opinions and beliefs about informal learning, informal learning in organizations, e-Learning and informal learning, and personal experience of informal learning. In this report, we present the results of this study.