University HRM Module 1: Formal Training Versus Informal Learning

This report delves into the significance of formal and informal learning within human resource development (HRD). It begins by establishing the relevance of continuous learning in the professional sphere, particularly within corporate settings where mistakes can have significant consequences. The report defines and contrasts formal learning, characterized by structured, off-the-job training, with informal learning, which emphasizes on-the-job skill acquisition. It explores the traits and importance of each, highlighting the scheduled design, predetermined content, and theoretical focus of formal training, and the context-specific, experience-based nature of informal learning. A comparison between the two approaches underscores the benefits of informal learning for maximizing profit and fostering future sustainability for the organization. The report concludes that HRD practitioners should prioritize informal learning methods over formal training opportunities to maximize the efficiency and ability of the HRD team, which will help to set up better framework for the organisational employees.

Running Head: MSC HUMAN RESOURCES TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
MSC HUMAN RESOURCES TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
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1MSC HUMAN RESOURCES TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Executive Summary
Learning and self assessment process has a significant relevance in the professional world as
well. In the corporate business world one chance of mistake can be emerged as a biggest threat
for the organisation. It can make a detrimental impact on the finance or the business environment
of the company. In this regard, the purpose of this report is to make a clear perception about
various traits of formal and informal learning in a business organisation. To make the discussion
more relevant and pragmatic, the report puts some light on various aspects of the formal and
informal learning on human resource development. Moreover, this report is also discussing on
the comparison between the formal and informal trends of learning procedure and finally
assesses which process is better for the workplace learning. It can be concluded that the HRD
practitioners to implement informal learning instead of formal training opportunities and paves
the way for the organisation to witness maximize profit and prosperity that fosters future
sustainability for the organisation.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Framing of the concepts...............................................................................................................4
Formal learning............................................................................................................................5
Traits of formal learning..............................................................................................................6
Importance...................................................................................................................................8
Informal learning.......................................................................................................................10
Facets of informal learning........................................................................................................11
Importance.............................................................................................................................13
Comparison between formal and informal learning..................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
Reference.......................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
Learning in organisation is considered to be an important aspect for different departments
and employees. Learning can be categorised by the way of making the professional experience
better. It can be argued that nobody is perfect purely. As the nature of the human begins
everyone has some problem or drawbacks regarding their doings. Despite of having a series of
flaws people are always puts focus on the betterment of their jobs and sometimes seek help of an
expert who will guide them to enhance their performance far better than the previous one. In this
context, it is also important to figure out the possible disadvantages that are identified in the
character of a man. It will be helpful to resolve the problem if the person willingly figure out the
flaws in his work. It means, self assessment and learning are considered to be the fundamental
principles that make the life better for an individual (Goggins, Jahnke and Wulf 2013). Based on
this understanding, it can be articulated that this learning and self assessment process has a
significant relevance in the professional world as well. In the corporate business world one
chance of mistake can be emerged as a biggest threat for the organisation. It can make a
detrimental impact on the finance or the business environment of the company. In this regard, it
can be advocated that professionalism with least scope for flaws and mistake is what the business
organisations are looking for.
However, a pertinent question comes in mind that how far the professionals are
succeeded to make a better framework to cope with the flaws in their professional activities. In
course of this realization, various kind of learning process are taken into consideration that are
directly or indirectly help the professionals to learn more to procure better work in their
professions (Ford, 2017). In this context, there are some theories that are intertwined with the

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learning process and help to render better organisational outcomes. The psychological
perspective and the social, contextual influences on learning are significant in this aspect
(Bancheva and Ivanova 2015). Besides this, there are the formal and informal learning methods
that are essential for any employee to put an emphasis upon.
Based on this understanding, the purpose of this report is to make a clear perception
about various traits of formal and informal learning in a business organisation. To make the
discussion more relevant and pragmatic, the report puts some light on various aspects of the
formal and informal learning on human resource development. The reason behind choosing the
HRD is because the efficiency and ability of the HRD team will help to set up better framework
for the organisational employees. Moreover, this report is also discussing on the comparison
between the formal and informal trends of learning procedure and finally assesses which process
is better for the workplace learning.
Discussion
Framing of the concepts
A major question that tinkers the strategizing of the practitioners and the policy makers in the
domain of workplace training and development is ‘so what?’ In different words, various studies
of workplace training seem to imply the causality of workplace learning towards organisational
output. Learning as a single entity is very difficult to measure, in terms of its role towards
organisational performance (Dennerlein et al. 2015). Considering other strategic factors like
product market, Job design and official culture, employee engagement, and other factors, the
contribution of workplace training can be assessed in lieu of its approach towards these
derivatives.

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Before delving into a comparative study, it is essential to assess how much is the scope of
learning on place in the organisations. Indicators such as the engagement level of the employees
towards formal training session that is organised by the management of the companies, the
accuracy and relevance of the employee training program in offices and the assessment of the
amount of knowledge acquired by the employees is essential for drawing a competitive line
between formal and informal learning. According to the views of Marsick and Watkins(2015),
there is high propensity among the employees of modern organisations for ignoring the ordeals
of formal training sessions.
Formal learning
The ubiquity brought about in the realm of employee training and skill development by
means of informal training in contrast to formal training is acknowledged by authors who
analyse the effective of the job training programs through social as well as psychological
perspective. Formal learning can be definitively stated as the formatted and structured learning
that takes place in the workplaces, basically off the work. According to Manuti et al. (2015), the
training is not directly linked to the work design. It is a training conveyed in structured
classroom design and under formal educational layout. The pedagogical paradigm and didactic
interaction that takes place in those educational settings helps clarify the work structure to the
employees on a theoretical basis. Every employee goes through planned learning schedules. Each
of the steps of formal training program is destined to help the employees to master an individual
field of working.
By means of these learning programs the employees are expected to create a basic skill
level and generate awareness about the outcomes of their work in the company. as opined by
Sparr, Knipfer and Willems(2017), implicit is the realisation of the fact, that in most of the cases

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the educational setting, where the knowledge about job structure and design is imparted to the
employees are contextually specified for development of knowledge in contrast to real in hand
experience of how to execute any job when the problem or issue is offered to the employee in the
workplace. For evidence, an employee gets the training in a survey firm regarding how to check
factsheets and extract business data on a certain context. However, the employee does not gain
the knowledge regarding how to handle the work pressure if excessive files are assigned to the
employees in analysing a single business scenario. As per Nolan and Garavan(2016), the training
program also does not convey the knowledge how to handle the work flow during the listed work
schedule. Formal training, hence, is only intended to make the employee aware of how to use the
work methodologies. The way the employees can make the work experience smooth or
overcome job pressure is not conveyed in the formal job training sessions.
Traits of formal learning
According to the views of Baldwin, Kevin Ford and Blume(2017), formal training in the
workplaces, focus eccentrically on the deliberate parameters which are as follows.
i) A scheduled educational design that conveys only a certain sets of facts irrespective
of whether if the doubts and issues with every employee is resolved through those or
not.
ii) The learning package under which the employees receive training are modelled and
predetermined. In case if the work pattern or the work methodologies change in the
organisation, shortly after an employee joins work at the end of the training session,
he or she would face huge difficulty to adapt to the organisational norms and emerge
as a successful employee.

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iii) There is a designated theorist who conveys the knowledge to the employees in the
formal training programs. However, it is evident that such personalities are indulged
into streamlined lecturing sessions. As opined by Geiger(2017), the issues that the
real time employees face in the workplaces while working on real projects is out of
the perception of the instructors. This makes it problematic for the instructors to refer
to every odd situational circumstance that the employees might face in the context of
their real work experience.
iv) The Workplace training programs basically focus on the proficiency that the
employees have exhibited in mastering the training modules that are taught to them.
The organisational instructors do not take much into account the importance of testing
how well the employees are able to reflect the knowledge in terms of the real work
field. On the contray, Dirani(2017), opines that the employees are awarded
distinctions at the training centres if they are able to adapt to the lessons
commendably, without paying attention to how well the employee is able to
improvise the theoretical knowledge in real work context.
Another fact under consideration is the relevance of the training programs in the context of the
work pattern of the companies. Often the small and medium enterprises or the companies that
have recently stepped into the organised sector fail to link their training program with the
original work process they are following on job (Marodin, Waterhouse & Malik, 2017). Again,
such off work training facilities consume large amount of resources the likes of which include
physical resources (space, utilities), human resources (instructors) and capital resources (wages
of the instructors and the employees who are attending the training sessions).

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Importance
Arthur-Mensah and Alagaraja(2018), opines that the employees who are adults in the
workingfield have a definite mental disposition. Debates have been raised regarding the benefits
that can be drawn by the employees from such formal trainings. Again,Sparr, Knipfer and
Willems(2017), have opined that the employees in the off the job settings are often facing
difficulties to decipher various technical and financial terms associated with the training
programs and hence they are not able to fully relate to the training modules. There is also no
scope for full analysis of various contexts to the employees. Hence, often major sections of the
employees are oblivious about the applicability of the theories that are being learnt by them at
the raining.
The major outlook of informal learning at the workplaces on the contrary is how skills and basic
knowledge can be acquired by an employee in the work setting itself. As per Manuti et al.
(2015), this has a direct influence to the organisational performance of the individual employees.
In major number of the organisations in modern Hong Kong, the companies give more stress on
the formal learning process in the workplaces rather than on job informal learning measures.
However, after analysing the significance of formal training, a question can be raised: Is formal
training program the ultimate solution for employees’ skill development? Another important fact
is that irrespective of the amount of formal training that takes place in a company, the employees
learns to handle job pressure or encounter the difficult contexts in job, through the learning that
they acquire form various persons like departmental heads, co- employees and others. This is
part of the “invisible learning” that is acquired by the employees outside the copybook training
that is provided by the companies (Pradhan, 2017).

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Hence, Cerasoli et al. (2018), opines that it is evident in smaller organisation that level of
engagement of the employees in the formal training sessions is deliberately low. The employees
who have been accustomed with the formal educational setting throughout their educational
career finds themselves disoriented with a similar setting. On the contrary, many business
organisation have a major conception that the knowledge acquired through informal
interferences in a company do not contribute much towards accreditation of the working
knowledge of the employees or increasing their proficiency. However, according to the opinion
of Baldwin, Kevin Ford and Blume(2017), internal surveys conducted in various major
international have conferred that major percentage of the employees who are in a distinctive
position have learned the major fundamentals of working in the organisation from their peers at
work, rather than from the formal training t5hat have been organised on the part of the
management for the skill development of the employees in that company.
Many small and start-up firms have recently started to acknowledge that formal training
programs are not an integral part of skill development and human resource development in the
company. They have a basic training program where the employees get acquainted with the basic
work design that is followed by the employees of the organisation. Other than that, Kukenberger,
Mathieu and Ruddy (2015), opines that the working styles, or proficiency development trainings
are given to them by the departmental heads or the human resource managers who are perse4nt
in the work teams where the employees work in the company. The senior employee also
conducts induction sessions for the junior and the new joiners so that they can get acquainted
with the issues that they might encounter at the office.

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Informal learning
The recent organisations have acknowledged that informal learning within the context of
the organisation have the broadest significance and the deepest cognitive influence. The
employees who learn through informal learning sources do not require employee motivation
sessions for boosting individual organisational performance. On the contrary, Noe, Tews and
Michel(2017), opines that the work success rate and accuracy of such employees are greater in
contrast to the formally trained employees. Many of the companies of recent times have adapted
to the procedure of e-learning which is subversion of Informal learning at the workplace. The
employees in such organisations do not get a long training session at the front of their work
regime. Rather, they have the facility to ping the quality control experts of the company any time
they encounter any issues that is insolvent their own. In fact, according to Tews et al. (2016), the
bigger corporations have also acknowledged the importance and avenues of informal training.
This is why they run small and short time online courses for the employees that are
dedicated various kinds of workplace management. These courses enable them to learn the
approaches to work in the companies with increased effectiveness. Employee workshops are also
run by many companies where the employees engage in external non paid sessions for elevating
their workplace proficiency. In fact many employees are seen to participate in the skill
development program arranged by various organisations for getting promotions. This shows it
evidently that majority if the employee working in the modern organisations is not satisfied with
the training they receive at the advent of their work. On the other hand, it might happen that the
formal training that they receive in their workplaces is inadequate to address the complex
situations that they face in their real work atmosphere. This is why they look to alternative
avenues of skill development. According to the words of Gerken, Beausaert and Segers(2016), if

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the employees are allowed to learn and gather knowledge when they face or encounter a certain
issue at the workplace, such knowledge can result in better organisational outcomes rather than
the mediated lessons that they are forced to learn.
Majority of the employees tend to forget the lessons that are conveyed to then at the
formal training centres of their designated companies. This is evident that skills that the
employees acquire through informal learning addresses a single workplace issue only, rather than
a general business scenario like a conception in formal training. Another issue is that most firms
do not have appropriate number of human resource so that they are able to conduct a well
oriented and relevant informal learning program through online learning, workplace training and
other means (Spaan, 2016). In spite of that it is to be addressed that human capital development
is a crucial and difficult regime in a company and very hard to accomplish through formal
training provided at the advent of work regime to the employers.
Facets of informal learning
There are some important aspects of the informal learning that make the process more
effective for the employees. Therefore, some important features of the informal learning are:
i. Unorganised- It can be argued that the informal learning is based on no set of formulas
or guidelines. For an instance, it can be argued that spontaneity has a great influence on
the informal learning which in return helps the employees to make their learning process
more liberal (Manuti et al. 2015).
ii. High motivation- In the informal learning employees become highly motivated not only
for its liberal approach but also the informal learning has an ability to make an