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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.

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the presence of learning conditions for non‐formal and informal workplace learning in relation to the characteristics of the employee and the organisation he or she works for.

The questionnaire developed by Clauwaert and Van Bree on learning conditions was administered to 1,162 employees of 31 different organisations. An explorative factor analysis was performed to reduce the number of variables and to look for underlying constructs in the data. Second, a series of analyses of variance were calculated in order to be able to compare the factors in different kinds of groups of employees.

The authors concluded that for the five learning conditions that were identified in this research, different kinds of groups of employees have different chances for non‐formal and informal learning. These learning conditions are “feedback and knowledge acquisition”, “new learning approach and communication tools”, “being coached”, “coaching others”, and “information acquisition”.

The value of this research is that it has shown that characteristics of the employee and his or her organisation have a relationship with the presence of learning conditions or chances for non‐formal and informal workplace learning. Moreover, this research included all kinds of employees and not only those responsible for training and education in the organisation. This research focused on conceptions and perceptions of “regular” employees.

The goal of this exploratory empirical article is to analyse managers' beliefs about learning and their reports of enabling workplace learning for both individuals and teams. It aims to discuss the managers' rationales for prioritising development, detail the learning methods used and evaluate the types of outcomes which were targeted.

A qualitative, case‐study research design was adopted using two embedded units of analysis (local government administrations) and data were derived from photo‐elicitation interviews.

The diverse learning interventions that were reported are detailed and analysed in terms of learning for individuals and for groups and in terms of replicative and expansive learning outcomes.

The research was limited to manager respondents and to their reported developmental intentions, therefore implications for extending the research are proposed.

The need for enhancing managers' awareness of their beliefs about learning and their capabilities for engendering non‐formal learning through work practices is discussed.

The article demonstrates that a broader range of methodologies were reportedly used by managers in enabling staff learning than has previously been shown. Moreover, that learning interventions were widely reported in a context of cuts and change questions the prevailing orthodoxy that development is sacrificed in times of cutbacks.

This study aims to describe the lectores (readers) who read the world news and works of literature to workers in pre-World War II cigar factories in Tampa, Florida, and in New York City. The paper addresses the need for more examination of some neglected aspects of workplace learning by presenting a more critical approach to workplace learning as a form of social change. It also focuses on the importance of the lectores’ role as facilitators of workplace learning and leaders of change.

The paper is based on a qualitative analysis of archival data from libraries and research centers located in New York City and in Miami, Florida.

Through the lectores, cigar factories were a place where workplace learning, organizational and social change occurred daily. As leaders, the lectores were radical agents of change and created affordances that shaped the factory workers’ workplace and personal learning. The discussion explores the dynamics between the lectores and the cigar workers.

Findings from this study demonstrate that developing employees is not limited to elevating their knowledge and skills needed to increase productivity and organizational performance. As self-actualized employees are better contributors to organizations, they, along with facilitators of learning, must care about what workers intrinsically need and explicitly demand. The findings speak to the multifaceted nature of workplace learning, one that encompasses skill acquisition and one that transforms workers. In essence, learning facilitators elicit change.

The research literature on workplace learning in the early part of the twentieth century in the USA is rare. This historical data-driven examination of the lectores and their role in factories presents a unique opportunity to focus on issues of social justice that are largely absent from human resource development discourse.

This empirical paper aims to assess how social media can foster workplace learning within a globally dispersed project environment. In general, there are few studies on the use of social media in organizations, and many of these emphasize on issues related to knowledge transfer. Although learning traditionally has been as acquisition of knowledge, increasingly researchers point to learning-as-participation occurring through work collaboration. Social media promise increased opportunities for communication and collaboration, extending the context of collaboration beyond the local setting. However, there exists limited research on how social media can foster workplace learning, for example, between globally dispersed colleagues.

The study is based on an exploratory, in-depth single case study of an international professional service firm’s implementation of an internal wiki system to address the research question: how are social media utilized in an organization to foster workplace learning among its dispersed individual experts? Data are gathered in 35 semi-structured interviews, as well as documents studies and observations. Data are coded and analyzed utilizing the context and learning factors of workplace learning.

The paper shows how the wiki system enables hybrid knowledge management strategies linked to virtual collaboration on daily project tasks, involving documentation, search, interaction and knowledge exchange, as well as socialization and learning from practice among dispersed groups and individuals. The learning mechanisms involved in virtual collaboration do not differ much from what is reported on face-to-face workplace learning, however, the context factors are extended beyond the local setting.

The findings identify four determinants for using the wiki that can be of use to other organizations implementing similar virtual collaboration technology. First, the wiki must directly relate to the daily work by offering interactive and updated information concerning current project challenges. Second, the system must enable transparency in the daily project work to allow search. Third, the intention with the search is of lesser degree to identify encyclopedic information than it is to visualize individual competence. Fourth, the quality assurance of the data posted at the wiki is important.

The study reveals how an international knowledge-based organization can utilize social media to leverage knowledge and experiences from multiple geographically dispersed projects by enabling virtual collaboration. Extant empirical research on workplace learning emphasizes on face-to-face interactions in groups, for example, when engineers, or accountants, in teams interact and collaborate at client premises. However, there exists limited knowledge concerning how workplace learning can be achieved through virtual collaboration.

This paper sets out the arguments for the use of social media as a tool for learning in the workplace.

Not applicable – viewpoint paper

Social media can play a valuable role in both formal and informal learning in those organizations in which employees have some discretion over how they use their time and when they have easy access to networked computers.

Organisations should look closely at the potential for using social media

Clearly sets out four specific applications for social media in workplace learning – formal, non‐formal, in‐demand and experiential learning.

The overall aim of the present study was to investigate the learning climate and work group skills perceived by managers and their subordinates in the municipal elderly care, prior to a development project. The specific research questions were: Are managers' and their subordinates' perceptions of the learning climate related? and Does the manager's assessment of the work group skills correlate with the work group's perception of the learning climate?

A total of 12 managers and 130 of their subordinates were selected, and answered a questionnaire. The subordinates belonged to work groups with five to 19 care assistants working in elderly care. The majority of the participants were women (92 per cent). The mean age was 43 years old, range 20‐63.

Results suggest that the perception of the learning climate has a correspondence between the organisational levels (managers and their subordinates) and that there is a correspondence between managers' ratings of work group skills, in particular skills for effectively managing change, and the work groups' perception of their learning climate, in particular decision autonomy and developmental and collaborative potentials.

The manager sample was small and from one single organisation.

The relations between the learning climate and the assessment of staff skills are important to the actions taken in order to facilitate workplace learning and development.

This study contrasted the managers' assessment of skills with their work groups' perceptions of learning climate, which is quite unusual in learning climate studies.

This article reports on a pilot graduate apprenticeship in hospitality management, currently delivered at Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies (BCFTCS). The graduate apprenticeship at BCFTCS involves the integration of key skills and level four NVQ units into the established hospitality business management undergraduate degree programme. Key outcomes to emerge from the design, implementation and first year delivery of the graduate apprenticeship are discussed to assess if the integration of key skills and NVQs into an existing programme of study provides added value to the student learning experience. The major benefits and challenges which a programme involving a coalescence of key skills, HE award and NVQs offers HE institutions and employers are discussed.

Despite the widely recognised importance of lifelong learning, there are mixed results on its causal economic impact. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how economic conditions change the composition of participants in non-formal lifelong learning and whether the business cycle is relevant for the impact of non-formal lifelong learning on employability.

Non-linear decomposition techniques and matching estimators based on multidimensional covariates are applied to the Spanish sample of the European Adult Education Survey. The analysis controls for background, human capital and personal traits and draws a distinction between unemployed and employed workers.

The results show major differences in the volume and composition of participants before and during the Great Recession. In addition, there is a business cycle dependence of the effectiveness of non-formal lifelong learning that varies with the individual labour market situation. While lifelong learning proves more effective for the unemployed in recessions, for the employed the impact is greater in expansions.

The paper provides new evidence on the scant results of the moderating effect of the business cycle on the impact of lifelong learning. The analysis is not restricted to training implemented within public programmes, but rather extends to any kind of non-formal lifelong learning undertaken by unemployed and employed workers. In this sense, the analysis provides information about the optimal moment to invest in lifelong learning from both the policymaker and individual as well as firm perspective.

This article aims to show how in times of austerity when formal HRD activity is curtailed and yet the need for learning is greatest, non‐formal learning methods such as workplace involvement and participation initiated by line managers can compensate by enabling the required learning and change.

A qualitative cross‐sectional design using a photo‐elicitation interview method was used with middle‐manager respondents within two case‐study organisations. These organisations, UK local authorities, were selected on the basis of the severity of the austerity measures being imposed and the significance of the learning needed/changes required. Middle managers were the focus, being a managerial cadre with dual responsibilities for both implementing and initiating change.

Managers' narratives of their managerial practices are analysed and show strong intentions to facilitate the learning of individuals through, for instance, enabling learning from experience and also to promote social learning within communities of practice. Narratives of community learning suggest that the managers were also supporting the creation of new forms of practice within their teams.

The research involved volunteer respondents who were MBA educated and who may, therefore, have been atypical. Nonetheless, implications for HRD policy and practice are proposed, including the need for more recognition of the role of line managers in enabling both individual and organisational learning and the need for developing managers as workplace educators.

This paper is an in‐depth qualitative study of workplace activities including participation and involvement practices using the lens of situated learning theory to highlight the importance of line managers as facilitators of non‐formal learning in times of austerity. Empirical conclusions are drawn upon in refining situated learning theory.