Starting from the growing gap between the traditional educational system and desirable social outcomes, several questions for researchers and practitioners can guide us to shape the future of non-formal education: Some questions for researchers and practitioners For example, in a study of the global scouts movement, I find that the social functionality of this non-formal educational movement is perceived very differently across countries. Non-formal education also has social functionality, as it enables people to engage in society and it provides a platform for discussing and tackling local, regional and global problems. This means that non-formal education brings direct benefits for its participants, such as skills, experiences and personal networks. A major one is participant functionality. Non-formal education has different functionalities. Given its organisational structure, it can be actively managed to provide educational solutions for concrete and tangible problems. It can also be applied to focus on a particular group of people or niche activity and it can be strategically managed in order to reach particular educational goals for such target groups.Ĭonsequently, non-formal education is mainly provided by civil society and/or non-profit service organisations, and it can fill the gap between what is left open by formal education and what is naturally transferred through people’s daily social interactions. This distinction is significant, as non-formal education therefore requires a minimal level of resources to support an organisational structure. Hence, compared with informal education, non-formal education happens in a more organised and structured way. Informal education – which encompasses all acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes from any kind of experiences – is an even broader, but also more ambiguous, form of education.
It has been described as a complementary ‘educational activity carried on outside the formal system to provide selected types of learning to particular subgroups in the population, adults as well as children.’ Compared with formal education, non-formal education is less focused on the general and overall public needs of large groups in a society. I believe that ‘non-formal education’ is the way to fill the growing gap that results from today’s more advanced and heterogeneous educational needs. But the traditional education system is focused on disciplinary specialisation, rather than interdisciplinary combinations of skill sets. In turn, this requires very specific combinations of skills and knowledge. There are also many contemporary challenges – such as migration, global warming, radicalisation and inequality – that are extremely complex and need a holistic and interdisciplinary approach.
What’s more, the needs of specific groups of people don’t fit well in the current system and should be targeted in different ways.Īs an example, we can think of the immense group of refugees who have arrived in Europe over the last five years with backgrounds ranging from an unfinished high-school education to advanced degrees in engineering, medicine, information technology, languages and so on. In a fast-changing society with substantial technological advancements and unlimited global connectedness, lifelong learning has become a necessity, often long after people have left the formal education system.
It’s generally good at tackling the basic needs of a fairly homogeneous group of people – mainly children and young adults from 6 to 18 with the possibility of ‘extension’ to college or university for those who ‘performed well’ in the first two levels of the system. Our traditional system of formal education – with a teacher or professor in front of a classroom of passive listeners, backed up with a blackboard and lots of chalk – is becoming increasingly unfit for purpose.
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