Bridging formal and informal lifelong learning using a soccer game metaphor

People need to engage in lifelong learning to be part of the knowledge society, while educational institutions cannot formally provide continuous ongoing, personally defined learning that addresses immediate workplace-based needs. Designing a formal online post-graduate course around a soccer game metaphor, we incorporated the characteristics of informal lifelong learning, namely peer facilitated and collaborative processes, formative and reflective assessment, learning community and open-ended curriculum driven by learner-determined goals. Students used the metaphor in their social discussions to denote collaborative learning, community, personal purposes and transformative reflective learning. The metaphor familiarised and prepared students for lifelong informal learning by bridging the gap from formal learning.