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Informal Training and Development



Informal training and development is rather casual and incidental. Typically, there are no specified training goals as such, nor are their ways to evaluate if the training actually accomplished these goals or not. This type of training and development occurs so naturally that many people probably aren't aware that they're in a training experience at all. Probably the most prominent form of informal training is learning from experience on the job. Examples are informal discussions among employees about a certain topic, book discussion groups, and reading newspaper and journal articles about a topic. A more recent approach is sending employees to hear prominent speakers, sometimes affectionately called "the parade of stars".



Informal training is less effective than formal training if one should intentionally be learning a specific area of knowledge or skill in a timely fashion. Hardly any thought is put into what learning is to occur and whether that learning occurred or not. (However, this form of training often provides the deepest and richest learning because this form is what occurs naturally in life.)



Formal Training and Development

Formal training is based on some standard "form". Formal training might include:

a) declaring certain learning objectives (or an extent of knowledge, skills or abilities that will be reached by learners at the end of the training),

b) using a variety of learning methods to reach the objectives and then

b) applying some kind(s) of evaluation activities at the end of the training.

The methods and means of evaluation might closely associate with the learning objectives, or might not. For example, courses, seminars and workshops often have a form -- but it's arguable whether or not their training methods and evaluation methods actually assess whether...