Work at Learning, Learning at Work: Create a Learning Portfolio

Once again I am participating in the The Working/Learning blog carnival. This carnival has one broad theme: work at learning; learning at work. The idea is for many blogs to createin posts that relate to how individuals can go about their own learning, and how learning happens in the workplace. This week it is being hosted by Rupa at One Stop Resource for Instructional Designing.

Check out Rupa’s posting for the carnival.

Here are my thoughts for this month.

Learning at work is both accidental and purposeful. Often a person will learn from a co-worker, a boss or even a client. Sometimes they will learn what “not-to-do” as well as what they should be doing. Sometimes learning will be from an email the you were accidently copied on or from over hearing a discussion in the hallway.

Other times a person will establish a goal of learning something, “I am going to learn how they calculate the budget for my department” or “I am going to learn how to write a better proposal.” These types of learning events are not typically scheduled in advance or are even on a person’s radar until the moment of need arises and then they spring into action.

Other times there is a long term learning goal, “I am going to learn to be a project manager and then position myself so I can become a project manager.” These types of purposeful learning goals are long-term and planned in advance.

As you think about learning at work it is important to create both short and long term goals as well as allowing accidental learning to influence what you are doing. The more types of learning you can include in your “Learning Portfolio” the better off you will be in the long run and the more you will learn at work.

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