Recognition of informal learning: challenges and issues

Traditional educational structures have largely discounted informal learning. However, a growing interest in vocational education and training by both policy makers and the research community in many countries during the 1990s suggests that the time may have come for informal learning to receive some serious attention. This article considers four aspects of recognition of informal learning and the challenges that they pose for standard educational assumptions. The four aspects are: (i) recognition of informal learning as credit towards formal qualifications; (ii) recognition by educators of non-traditional types of knowledge; (iii) recognition by learners of the extent of their informal learning; and (iv) recognition of the high sensitivity of informal learning to contextual factors.