The Role Of Informal Learning In Today’s Successful Training Department

Vol. 4 No. 2

Year:

2007

Issue: July-September

Title	: The Role Of Informal Learning In Today’s Successful Training Department
Author Name	: Colleen Wittkopf, Zane L. Berge
Synopsis	:
The integration of work and learning is becoming the dominant means of workforce training in many organizations today. Though structured classroom learning will likely never entirely recede, a preponderance of current research indicates that the future of most job-related learning will lie in non-traditional methods such as short e-training modules delivered directly to the desktop, podcasts, informal knowledge-sharing sessions, and even structured gaming environments.  This paper will explore why such learning is becoming increasingly more critical, how a successful blend of informal and formal learning can achieve the individualized training that a majority of employees are beginning to demand, and the difficulties involved, specifically with respect to evaluation and the ways in which it can be leveraged by a training department.  These types of learning can be combined with some traditional training events to create a meaningful learning path for new employees and existing ones alike, and training and development specialists will have to find ways to achieve the right blend to achieve improved workforce performance.