Integrating formal and informal learning to develop self-management skills: Challenges and opportunities for higher education in the university-to-work transition.

The amazing progress of technology, the globalisation of markets, the push to economic competition, the break of traditional career paths and consequently the development of new skills and professionalities are only some of the main transformations that have contributed to radically redesign the way people learn and develop skills, consequently influencing the meaning they attach to career and how do they plan their future in the 21th century. While only a few decades ago, formal learning meant as the education normally acquired in a systematic intentional way within a school, higher education or university was the main and most salient element to choose and select “the right man for the right place”, nowadays the “talent war” imposes workers to compete on a different and more complex level, showing their uniqueness by accounting for several different learning experience acquired mostly in informal and non-formal contexts. Actually, parallel to the cultural, economical and social revolution of the social systems, even working organizations are experiencing a time of radical change. They are called to face all the challenges described above and to keep in the market as well. That is why they are becoming more and more demanding in terms of soft skills required to workers to perform efficiently, beyond role prescriptions and technical requirements. In view of this, an imperative for both research and professional practice in the field of education is to help individuals to recognize, capitalize and manage their learning, marking the difference in terms of human capital. Given these premises, the aim of the chapter is to review the main literature on informal learning and to argue for the need to integrate formal with informal learning enhancing learning methodologies that could better serve self-directed learning and self management skills.