INFORMAL LEARNING PROVIDERS - A NATURAL RESPONSE TO THE 21ST CENTURY SOCIETY NEEDS OF LIFELONG LEARNING

The international community at large has acknowledged by now that lifelong learning is a necessity that cannot be addressed properly without adequate synergy of its integral components that is, formal education and non- formal education, the latter being part of a lifelong learning concept ensuring that young people and adults acquire education needed to adapt to a continuously changing environment. Nevertheless, society dynamics challenge more often than not, the realm of policies and academics throwing their way outcomes that emerge as natural responses to various societal hurdles which the individual faces in the 21st century. That is the case of informal learning which we consider to have the highest potential of creating innovative learning resources and tools that best address the learning needs for lifelong learning at this particular moment due to its specificity and keeping in mind the setbacks of the formal educational system, the changes and challenges brought about by the digital era as well as the shifting paradigms of employment. In order to illustrate this we will provide two case studies of Romanian non-profit organizations that act as informal learning providers.

The Resource Center for Alternative Development (RCAD) PRO Community is a non-profit organization established in February 2017 having set as its primary objective the design of a viable platform of massive online open course (MOOC) resources based on the principles and specificity of informal learning. By these ”PRO Community ALTERNATIVES” the organization endorses the authentic process of self-development having as target the consolidation of skills and eventually body of knowledge in areas such as science and/or humanities. Thus the alternatives RCAD proposes are being designed as MOOC since the initiators consider that this category of learning tool (MOOC) best responses to informal learning needs since learning at one’s own pace, in the setting that best suits the learner without the constrains of a formal, pre-defined background ensures an authentic development and an authentic learning experiences especially for adults who have to meet the challenges of an active social and professional life. At the present moment the organization has designed a MOOC English as Foreign Language Course for independent use targeted at beginner and intermediate learners.

The Brown Bear’s Company (BBC) is a historical reenactment association established in 2014 with the support of ABI Foundation. The Company promotes the concept of living history as informal leaning through reenactment activities, events, craft workshops that bring to life civilian and military living in the Medieval Period. The trainers of the Brown Bear’s Company developed their presentations and reenactment sessions as informal learning for they consider building up skills a mean of cognitive development both basic as well as complex, aimed at relevant details for the process of learning about common historical, cultural heritage and immaterial patrimony.