ABSTRACT
In this chapter we discuss the importance of non-formal or informal1 learning in the community and in the family and the implications of lifelong learning policies for such learning. As the Coffield quotation makes clear, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of informal learning; not just in the ‘accidental’ learning we do as we negotiate our relationships and personal lives, but also in learning for and at work. For example, in a survey of adults in a South Wales mining community, Fevre, Gorard and Rees (2000) found that despite the growth of formal training in the workplace, many individuals said that they had taught themselves to do their jobs. For these individuals, any formal training that they participated in occurred after they had already ‘learned’ the job and that for this reason, formal training was often undertaken to achieve a ‘paper qualification’ for a job that they already understood. Fevre, Gorard and Rees conclude that this suggests that the ‘learning society’ places too much emphasis on certification. Lifelong learning policies of the 1990s have certainly been criticised for having concentrated mainly on participation and learning in educational institutions and on formal qualifications. The primary criticism here, then, is that lifelong learning policies and practices underestimate the importance of informal learning in their focus on getting more people to participate in learning in formal settings.
