Formal, Informal, non Formal Learning and Competence Development: A Review of the Literature in a Psychological Perspective

The radical economical, social and cultural changes experienced by the labour market within the last decades have contributed to highlight the central role played by the learning process for individual career development and for organizational success. In such a fast moving working contexts skills and competencies rapidly become updated and need to be continuously implemented and empowered, as a strategic factors for global competition. In the mean time, any traditional model of learning both in and out the workplace is not sufficient to explain the complexity of such a process which weaves and overlaps formal, non formal and informal components. Moving from such premises, the aim of the present contribution is to analyse the role of knowledge and experience as very important learning frames which allow the acquirement and the development of competencies. To this purpose, the most recent addresses of the psychological literature on learning and competence development will be reviewed, with a special focus on the formal, non formal and informal dimensions of both processes.