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The purpose of this paper is to explore how the induction of new teachers might be regarded as a form of apprenticeship in which informal support (on‐the‐job learning) plays an important role alongside formal continuing professional learning (off‐the‐job learning). The sample teachers are part of the Teacher Induction Scheme in Scotland, which provides a reduced teaching workload during the induction year, so that new teachers have time to develop their practice through continuing professional learning and development activities.

A sequential mixed methods study was undertaken, with two online questionnaires sent to 167 new teachers and two sets of semi‐structured interviews with ten new teachers.

The findings highlight the importance of a reduction in teaching hours and the significance of informal learning for new teachers. Furthermore, while an induction scheme framework with reduced workload is important, new teachers need supportive colleagues to learn from and with during their first year of teaching.

This study only involved new teachers who had completed their initial teacher education at one Scottish university. Policy makers and school leaders could do more to recognise, value and encourage informal work‐based learning and collegiate support for new teachers.

The paper provides a deeper understanding of the nature of informal learning, often characteristic of the apprenticeship model, in the context of a formal induction scheme. It highlights that more than a formal induction scheme on its own is needed to support teachers in their transition from student teacher to qualified teacher. The paper draws attention to the need for policy makers, local authorities and schools to be more supportive and responsive to the learning and development needs of new teachers when implementing an induction scheme for new entrants.

This paper aims to examine and summarize the findings of a comparative survey carried out to assess how learning outcomes acquired non‐formally or informally are validated and recognized. Owing to limitations of the study, this paper just seeks to consider the challenges that higher education faces, and the new possibilities that might emerge.

The methodology of the study includes critical and systemic analysis of references, also quantitative and qualitative research, which was completed as a three‐stage survey. The following methods were used: analysis of recent legal and political educational documents, structured interviews of experts, and a questionnaire comprising open and closed type questions.

The EU is committed to the principles of transferable learning but, until the principles and processes of recognition and validation of learning are integrated within national policy, this is unlikely to happen in any meaningful way. The current situation of autonomous HE management militates against consistency and equity of access for students wishing to have learning recognised and accredited.

A total of 55.3 per cent of questionnaires were returned (as 600 questionnaires have been sent out to NGOs in the countries mentioned), so this must be seen as a limitation of the study.

Findings can be used in designing and implementing procedures of validation and recognition in higher education (of learning outcomes acquired non‐formally and informally, e.g. in work place).

A targeted study enables one to make an informed comparison of practices (in the field of validation and recognition) among different countries, and to identify elements of the process that are successful in a variety of contexts.

Changing immigration patterns in the USA have led to a growing number of “new immigrant destinations.” In these contexts, opportunities for teacher learning are crucial for developing the school capacity to serve the academic, linguistic and socio-cultural needs of immigrant students. In response, the purpose of this paper is to examine how schools in Wisconsin provided both formal and informal teacher learning opportunities to develop the instructional capacity to support recent immigrants, specifically Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs).

Using descriptive analyses of teacher and administrator survey and interview data, this study examined the focus and within-school distribution of formal professional development, as well as teacher collaboration as a mechanism for informal learning.

Most commonly, professional development focused on concrete strategies teachers might enact in their classrooms, rather than developing broader understandings of the needs of immigrant students. In addition, formal professional development commonly targeted particular groups of teachers, rather than faculty as a whole. Finally, general education-ELL teacher collaboration was most often deployed “as needed” and focused on particular student needs, rather than systematically.

Future work might address the limitations of this study by examining teacher learning opportunities in new immigrant destinations in other locales, the quality and effectiveness of such opportunities, and other mechanisms for the distribution of expertise.

Findings suggest the need for more systematic and integrated approaches to teacher learning in new immigrant destinations, with an emphasis on pushing beyond the short-term need for instructional strategies to develop more holistic, collaborative approaches to integrating ELLs into schools and classrooms.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of workplace learning, with a focus on the non-formal learning that takes place among online journalists. The focus of this article is journalists working in an online newspaper and their experiences with workplace and non-formal learning, centring on framework conditions and learning environments.

The empirical data in this article are based on qualitative interviews conducted with journalists working in an online newspaper in the Western part of Norway. The sample comprises of five informants. The interviews were based on a combination of open-ended and more specific questions where the aim was to get a broad perspective on the informants’ experiences workplace non-formal learning and to investigate alternative perspectives that emerged during the interviews.

The findings indicate that a theory of online journalists’ workplace learning should take into account the fact that learning, in this context, takes place at various levels of conscious awareness, encompassing cognitive, behavioural, motivational and emotional aspects.

This project provides the field of workplace learning and journalism with context-specific research on the non-formal learning processes of online journalists.

Many higher education institutions are committed to developing students as skilled professionals and responsible citizens for a more sustainable future. In addition to the formal curriculum for sustainability education, there is an increasing interest in informal learning within universities. This paper aims to extend the current understanding of the diversity and significance of informal learning experiences in supporting students’ learning for sustainability.

Six focus groups were formed with 30 undergraduate and postgraduate students from an Australian higher education institution committed to supporting graduate competencies for sustainability. An inductive and qualitative inquiry was designed to enable participants to reflect on the ways in which their university experiences support meaningful and significant learning for sustainability.

The paper presents a typology of the diverse communities of informal learning that students create and engage with. These range from ongoing to transient groups, from environmentally to more socially oriented groups and from incidental to intended learning, from local to national in scale, with varying types and degrees of connection to the formal curriculum and the university campus. The paper demonstrates that these student-led experiences support three domains of learning: cognitive, practical and affective.

Deepening the understanding of the forms and significance of student-led learning within their university experience contributes to the identification of the roles that informal learning may play alongside formal education in developing graduates as agents of change for a more sustainable future.

This paper proposes to illustrate how organisations can successfully establish a blended learning environment.

Provides a structure for combining formal and informal learning resources within a blended learning model and outlines the eight key steps followed by organisations already implementing a successful integrated learning strategy. Draws on pedagogical information provided by Dorman Woodall, director of SkillSoft Learning, and includes data gathered from a variety of SkillSoft's Fortune 500 customers.

Many organisations now recognise that on‐demand solution finding is a primary source of employees' daily learning and are searching for ways to support this informal learning in tandem with their more formalised training programmes. Since both methods are essential to increasing workplace skills, tremendous strategic and tactical performance gains are available from this blending of formal training with informal learning. The ideal blended learning model is one that integrates a wide range of functions that empower learners with more control to participate in several formal and informal learning activities. The highest level of blended learning is an easily‐accessible and searchable combination of formal and informal learning with a learner‐centric focus.

Outlines an overall structure for implementing sequential formal training events and random informal blended learning activities.

Provides a blueprint for anyone seeking to introduce a blended learning strategy.

This chapter investigates how and to which extent the European Union (EU)-related content is taught in Romania, by analyzing the school curricula and the teaching and learning methods at undergraduate level (primary and secondary school). It distinguishes between formal and non-formal education on European issues and emphasizes the role of teaching and learning the EU in building European identity and the sense of belonging to the EU. Both textbooks (as traditional learning tools) and various educational activities and learning methods using digital technologies (digital platforms, databases, simulations, games, etc.) are taken into account. The examples of non-formal activities presented in this chapter help to better understand the EU, its regions, its institutions, and their functioning. This chapter suggests the need to focus more the school curricula on skills training, participatory learning, education of values and attitudes, and less on mechanical transmission of information. The examples of good practice presented show the role of the European education, whether classical education or that one based on the use of new communication technologies, in the formation of an European consciousness, in the better understanding of the present by learning the past and in the development of participatory attitudes.

The topic of informal learning at work has received increasing attention in the past years. The purpose of this study is to explore in which informal learning activities employees engage and what are the drivers for informal learning.

Semi-structured interviews were taken from ten human resources (HR) and ten marketing employees working at a German machinery manufacturer.

Employees mostly learn informally by talking or collaborating with others, searching information online, feedback giving and seeking from colleagues and supervisors and reading. Next, it was found that organizational drivers, task and job drivers, personal drivers and formal learning influenced employees’ informal learning. Background characteristics on the contrary were not found to influence informal learning. Overall, within these categories, the following drivers had the greatest influence on informal learning: commitment to learning and development, feedback as well as interactions with and support from colleagues and supervisors.

The design of this exploratory qualitative study brings some limitations. Based on the findings, suggestions for future quantitative and intervention studies are done.

The results show how human resources development (HRD) professionals could better support employees’ engagement in informal learning and gives an overview of the determinants that could be influenced and in turn have a positive effect on employees’ informal learning.

This study is one of the first studies unraveling informal learning as perceived by employees. It develops a comprehensive framework for categorizing drivers for informal learning.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the issue of bridging the gap between the labour market and university through recognition of non‐academic learning.

The purpose is achieved by proposing portfolio use for documenting adults' personal and professional growth as part of their learning outcomes gained through non‐academic learning, including informal learning, work‐based learning and non‐formal learning that occurred outside one's workplace. To gain insights into the use of the portfolio for documenting adults' personal and professional development through different learning environments qualitative/content analysis was used, with the focus on the descriptions of adults' learning outcomes according to Carter's taxonomy. The study involved 11 portfolios drafted by candidates having claims for academic credits in a management study programme at Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania. A learning format combining a portfolio development seminar followed by online consultations was created by the university; it was aimed at supporting candidates seeking academic recognition of their learning outcomes gained outside academia in exploring their non‐academic learning experience.

A structured portfolio and, more specifically, the portfolio based on Carter's taxonomy used as a tool for empowering the candidates has highlighted three important aspects of their learning claim, i.e. personal qualities, skills and knowledge as acquired in the non‐academic environment and built the basis for proof of personal and professional development in line with the requirements of existing university modules.

The research is not intended to compare the taxonomy of personal qualities, skills and knowledge against any specific curriculum requirements; rather, it should be subject to further discussion. The research is based on one of the very first attempts to introduce a validation procedure of non‐academic learning and thus bears limitations of a pilot project.

A clearly structured portfolio of learning outcomes enables adults to highlight important aspects of their learning claim and match their proof of learning in line with the university requirements for academic credit.

While portfolio has been frequently identified as an effective tool for learning, assessment and professional development in higher education, little known research has focused on the use of portfolio as a tool for documenting adults' learning outcomes gained outside academia.

The professional development needs of university professional staff are an under-researched area. More data were needed to understand their needs to ensure that employers invest their resources appropriately. A conceptual framework is developed for the workplace learning of career development activities using concepts of professional learning communities, adult learning and non-formal learning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the success of a professional development network in meeting the needs of university professional staff after a re-structure.

A case study of the development of a staff career network at an Australian university after a restructure is presented. An online survey was sent to 75 staff who had attended at least one professional development event. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

This study has shown that a university professional staff career network has been a positive influence for its participants after an organisational restructure. The value of this network was to increase confidence and provide opportunities for self-improvement, career planning and networking.

A conceptual model integrating the concepts of professional learning communities, adult learning and non-formal learning has resulted in a model of social non-formalised workplace learning that may be of use in other contexts to improve staff motivation, outside of more formal learning opportunities.