This article by Lydia Cillié- Schmidt was published on the HR Pulse website at http://www.hrpulse.co.za/employee-management/training-and-skills-development/227639-informal-learning-should-it-be-formalised Josh Bersin from the leading talent research company, Bersin and Associates, predicted that in 2012 organisations would continue to redesign their learning and development programmes to be social, informal and on-demand. This trend can be ascribed to the increasing availability of technology to facilitate this type of learning, but could also be linked to the whole concept of personalised learning. Dan Cox and Barbara Sanner from Cox eLearning Consultants stated in their own predictions for 2012 that personalised learning is extremely important, and content must be provided in numerous modalities, to accommodate various learners across a broad spectrum of age categories and geographies. The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) in Britain stated that many studies have consistently shown that 70% or more of the knowledge any person uses to do their job is learned informally. Jay Cross, author of the book, Informal Learning, defines informal learning as the unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way people learn to do their jobs. Jay uses the following analogies to highlight the differences between formal and informal learning. For him, informal learning is like riding a bicycle: the rider chooses the destination and the route. The cyclist can take a detour at a moment’s notice to admire the scenery or help a fellow rider. Formal learning is like riding a bus: the driver decides where the bus is going; the passengers are along for the ride. The CARA Group, Inc. (http://www.caracorp.com/documents/CARA_SocialMediaImpact_PulseSurveyReport.pdf) defined informal learning as, “learning that takes place independently from instructor-led classes or course-specific work such as self-study programs, performance support materials and systems, coaching, mentoring, and/or online community-based learning through social and business networks, etc." A survey by the CARA group in 2010 found that: Informal learning is a vital tool in employee training and that 90% of respondents encourage or support it in some way; according to the survey participants, informal learning is most useful when the format is social and in person, rather than individual and isolated; 81% of respondents feel social media offers valuable learning opportunities for employees; 98% of respondents agree that social media are changing how employees are learning and accessing information. Informal learning is, however, not without its headaches for organisations. As the CIPD stated in one of its invitations to a seminar on informal learning: “If it is such a large part of how people get results at work, we need to be paying far more attention to it, and not throwing all our budget at the formal approaches like training and e-learning. So we need answers to questions like: How does it work? How do you manage it? How do you encourage it? How do you direct it?” These questions seem to be the start of an effort to formalise informal learning – a contradiction in terms! Bob Mosher (at http://clomedia.com/articles/view/4158/) also expressed the need to formalise informal learning and wrote that one of the most dangerous aspects of many informal learning approaches is that they are highly inefficient. He was of the view that the goal should be to create an effective, independent and maintainable informal learning environment. Bob states that, “We still want to allow the power and immediacy of informal learning to occur, but there is much we can do to enhance the experience and make it more efficient. An intentional informal learning framework should help guide a learner through the informal domain. It should also help with the maintenance side of informal learning so the information used and shared is up to date and correct." The nature of informal learning makes it difficult to track. How do you, for example, monitor the effect of instant messaging, a phone call to someone for information or a chance meeting in the break room? A survey by Chief Learning Officer Magazine showed that 26% of survey respondents said they tracked informal learning, while the other 74% did not. One of the main issues in South Africa is how to report on informal learning in the Annual Training Reports to the SETA and how to include it on the Workplace Skills Plan. Some organisations do not have a problem with recording and monitoring informal learning on employees’ Individual Development Plans, but find it difficult to link monetary value and NQF levels to it. The result is that most organisations never receive recognition by the SETAs for a large percentage of learning that is happening within the organisation. Informal learning will always be a part of the learning environment and social technologies are helping to increase its impact. It does, however, require organisations to review its learning and development practices. As Josh Bersin concludes: “Many companies do not yet realise that informal learning is not about putting in place social networking and community-of-practice systems - it takes a total change in thinking about what learning and development (L&D) teams do all day, as well as a focus on program redesign, new tools and management culture." It looks as if we need to formalise the informal! The design of Learning Paths proves to be an effective method to formalise informal learning – a service that LeMaSa can offer to you.