Formal education has been perceived as a foundation of a normal life for ages. Although in the recent years the Internet and eLearning have slightly changed the concept, there are still statistics that say, for example, that people who drop out of college make 35% less money than those who finish the university with a degree. It seems that getting a diploma at a certified educational institution is the only way to achieve something in your life, and if you keep to the same idea, we’re sorry to disappoint you – no, it’s not.

There are 3 forms of education that each person has to take into account before making a choice:

• Formal education that you are so familiar with.
• Non-formal education like fitness programs, conferences, non-credit courses, etc.
• Informal education that makes you a boss of your learning.

In this article we’re going to talk about the last type and prove our words that college is not the single solution path. In fact, informal education can become even more beneficial in your pursue of cool career, self-development and success. How exactly? Let’s find out!

Informal education is a self-controlled and self-guided type of learning that usually doesn’t have a formal curriculum and can be spontaneous. Now, let’s talk about the most important benefits of such education.

1. You Study Whenever You Feel Like It

You don’t have to commit to any schedules, you just choose your most productive time – it can be any part of the day – and study. If you feel an urgent need to read about asteroids at 2 a.m., go ahead and find out how they fly in the space. If you wish to spend several days on improving your English grammar, nobody will tell you that you can’t allot so much time on one topic. You are the one who determines when, where, how often and how long, and that’s the beauty of it.

2. It Is Less Stressful and More Relaxing

Nobody will pressure you to read the page of the book faster or to finish your essay in 2 hours. You have all the time in the world to get to the bottom of the topic you want to become more proficient in. There will be no stress from deadlines and judgment from the ones who can do something better than you. Informal learning presupposes that you relax in a comfortable zone and perceive information more efficiently.

3. You Can Pick Any Form of Studying

Any service on the Internet is available for your studies, be it an online course, YouTube channel or FB chatting. You don’t have to follow the conventional way of learning like attending lectures, taking notes, reading boring books and doing homework. You can obtain help from any online or offline corner, and gain much more profit from that.

4. You Are More Motivated than Ever

Informal education is very similar to natural knowledge acquiring. You feel like finding an answer to the question, start looking for information fast and satisfy your desire almost at once. You are highly motivated and aimed at getting results. What is more, this freedom of changing your mind at the last minute or choosing to learn whatever you want gives you the necessary inspiration to go above and beyond in studying.

If you’re afraid of procrastination and boredom, don’t be. When learning something that you really want to understand, these 2 most dangerous threats of progress are replaced with the feeling of challenge, excitement and curiosity. Try this type of studying on the small things first, like on improving your language skills or knowing more about your college subjects; then, you’ll know whether it is suitable for you or not. Give it a shot and see it for yourself.