Learning Beyond the Classroom in Asia: The Rise of Informal Learning and How to Integrate it into your Organization

Published on 07/06/2015

By Jeremy Blain, Regional Managing Director, Cegos Asia Paciﬁc

While much has been written about informal learning and informal networks in the past, less has been written about how successfully they have been taken up within organizations and what the key steps are to a successful implementation.This paper will attempt to redress this by looking speciﬁ cally as to how companies and, in many cases, Asian companies are managing to incorporate informal learning within their organizations. This is important due to our own recent Workplace Learning Trends 2014 Survey which uncovered an explosion of informal learning across the region. Partly due to Learners taking control of their own development, partly through desperation at receiving nothing from their employers and partly as a collaborative attempt to harness the hunger to learn. Add to this new technologies and tools, greater access to learning with the likes of MOOCs, Video on demand, social networks etc it is more understandable when we see major trend shifts like this. What sets the best apart from the rest is the Learner and the Learning Organization working collaborative in an integrated, joined-up learning approach, providing the best of formalized and informal learning. We are getting much closer to true personalisation of learning for all.The paper will look at the drivers for this and how the attributes of informal learning are mirroring the modernday corporation and employee; successes to date; the main technology-enabled vehicles that are providing the catalyst to implementation; challenges; and the essential building blocks for the successful integration of informal learning within organizations. In this way, informal learning can function seamlessly alongside other activities and deliver signiﬁ cant beneﬁ ts to the organization from increased productivity through to an addressing of skills shortages.The paper will also look at some of the changes in institutional mindset that need to be made internally from senior managers, HR/L&D departments and line managers to ensure that an informal learning culture is fully embedded.Today, informal learning is ushering in a revolution both inside and outside the workplace. Get implementation right while continuing to foster and support informal learning’s unique attributes and organizations can look forward to signiﬁ cant beneﬁ ts for years to come.Click here to download the white paper