Travel log: Jan Mouton from Washington (4)

Informal learning is getting ever more important

June 1st, Tony Bingham, president and CEO of ASTD, gave a remarkable dissertation on the evolution of learning in the work environment and how often there is too little attention paid to it. Seventy percent of what people learn in an organisation, takes place on an informal basis bypassing the formal training circuit without any intervention from a training & development professional. A lot of employees lose their way in the daily inundation of e-mails, data and permanently evolving business information. This increases the need for “learning on demand.” As a consequence, one method of teaching that will definitely increase is the use of intranet 2.0 tools next to other forms of coaching and mentoring. The “net generation,” for who using the internet is as natural us breathing, will start using systems like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, ever more frequently whether it be on or off the job.

Paying attention to social technology as a possible method for teaching is quiet a recent phenomenon and so a lot of questions still surround the subject. Informal learning can strengthen and re-enforce formal learning. A trend that will become more visible the coming years is that informal learning will start to gain its place in global training strategies organisations set up.