ABSTRACT

There is great interest in Europe in the potential of recognizing informal or non formal learning, with a number of initiatives being sponsored by the European Commission and by governments and education agencies. The recognition of non formal or informal learning is seen as having a number of potential benefits:

1. assisting individuals in planning future careers or a return to formal education and training
2. Obtaining recognition for individual skills and competences
3. Helping integrate socially excluded or unemployed people in the labour market
4. Helping employers develop the potential of their workforce
5. Developing the potential of work based learning.

The recognition of informal and non formal learning is increasingly seen as a key plank in the development of lifelong learning. Most of the present approaches are focused on methods and tools for accrediting prior experience and competence. This paper will ask whether this is the most effective approach. It will suggest that the agenda of accrediting prior competence is largely driven by labour market concerns and pays little attention to individual learning needs or emancipation. Furthermore such an emphasis leads attention away form the key issues of how non formal learning can complement formal learning and, critically, how to develop informal an non formal learning, particularly in the workplace. The paper will argue that we need better tools fort recognising and describing the different types of learning which take place in everyday life and will explore the use of Six Category Intervention Analysis as such a tool.