Informal learning in continuing education of scientific-pedagogical employees

Education in the modern world cannot be reduced to its formal types produced in educational organizations. In the framework of modern concepts of continuing education, it appears as a unity of formal, non-formal and informal education. Each and all of them have impact on the professional activity of the academic staff. The aim of the article is to analyze the characteristics, functions and influence of informal education for the development of professional activity of scientific-pedagogical employees (SPE). Informal education is characterized in the article as one of the types of education in relation to formal and informal education, which form the integrity of the continuing education of the SPE. Based on the analysis of scientific literature and empirical data obtained during the survey of the SPE, the essential features of informal education (the natural and necessary character, self-organization, continuity) were identified. Life situations as sources of informal education were characterized. The authors described the features of in-formal education in relation to other types of education. The influence of informal education of SPE on their development and the success of their professional activities was given.