Engagement in informal learning activities in self-employed professionals and factors that influence their engagement

Abstract

Self-employed professionals are a relatively understudied group of professionals, especially when it comes to informal learning. It is important to create a knowledge base surrounding self-employed professionals and their informal learning activities to aid their personal development concerning employability. In this paper it was investigated in which prototypical informal learning activities self-employed professionals engage in, and what factors inhibited and enhanced their engagement in these activities. This was done by means of an exploratory quantitative survey research amongst Dutch self-employed professionals (N = 61). Results of the study show that self-employed professionals engage more in non-social informal learning activities than social ones. Engagement in informal learning activities is inhibited by environmental factors such as a lack of time, lack of close colleagues, and a lack of recognition. Engagement is enhanced by personal factors such as having an interest in the field of work and a love for learning. These findings can be used by self-employed professionals to revise their working and learning practices to aid their employability. The results of this study provide insights on how self-employed professionals learn by promoting self-awareness through insights, and to revise working and learning practices to aid employability.