Abstract

Over the last twenty years, empirical research confirmed the workplace as a privileged site for adult learning in which informal learning plays a dominant role. The learning potential available to the worker is here analyzed through the lenses of bounded agency, i.e. as the negotiated outcome between the individual’s ability to act and that of the organization, which influence and bound each other. This article aims to shed light on the conditions that expand the scope of learning available in the workplace, particularly for young teachers and trainers at the beginning of their careers in the Popular adult education sector, by answering these research questions: how can the workplace be a useful place for the development of the professional skills of young adult educators and trainers? What are the conditions that the organisation can vary so that the learning potential in the workplace is extended as far as possible in daily practice? Starting from the results of qualitative empirical research applied to two case studies, the aim is to indicate the conditions that organisations can foster in order to structure their work environment as a learning place.