This big state office (with 903 employees) located in a big city of Spain was Military–training group, involved in virtual learning environment courses. The 67 persons contacted were part of a group enrolled in the Virtual Learning Environment Program, so quite familiar with computers and learning technologies. From this group, only 11 were able to engage in the pilots (the dropout registered was one of the highest). Typically the employees had a degree and their age was between 41 and 60 years old.

These military participants developed a good increase on informal learning (IL) recognition during the pilots. The higher importance was given to “Reading” and the lower to “Trial and error” and “Online tutorials”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in: “learn to perform particular tasks” and “developing a deeper knowledge”.

Even though the drop out was high, the learners who participated were in majority active users (69%) and 49% of their activity was completed in both platforms, an average of 4 informal learning activities (ILA’s) per user. The number of activities per day was the higher scored (8) as the number of competences per ILA (4). They had also recorded the highest percentage of collected activities made public, with 90% of published users’ competences and 80% of ILA’s associated competences. They have also showed a high number of users’ competences.

These participants showed the higher receptivity to the idea and they thought it promote important reflections about their learning’s. They thought TRAILER tool could bring benefits to manage competences in an institution. Personally they considered its most value was to give them an opportunity to visualize learning. Regarding the tool, they emphasized some issues as the weakest: activity type with limited choices, and competences definition are too complex. They considered the tool needed usability improvement and that the piloting phase was too short to test it more realistically.

The person who acted as employer, a Captain and military academy teacher, considered that the TRAILER tool could act as a facilitator in the selection process and identification of new skills.

This big state office (with 1063 employees) was located in a big city of Spain and the contacted department was specialized in informatics. From the 7 employees in that department, 4 were part of the piloting trial phase of TRAILER (the dropout registered was one of the highest). Typically the employees had a degree and their age was between 26 and 40 years old.

The employees showed the lowest score of prior recognition of informal learning (IL) and even though this recognition improved after the pilots, it was still one of the lowest. The activities they considered more important in developing IL were “Reading”, “Trial and error” and “Searching in the Internet”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in: “learn to perform particular tasks”,  “developing a deeper knowledge” and “amusing myself”.

During the first piloting phase – the learner perspective, the few employees who started, finished the piloting (showed a percentage of 100% of active users), but few competences were added per informal learning activities (ILA’s), in average only 1. But 82% of actions were completed on both platforms (an average of 10 ILA’s per user). However, the great majority of the collected activities were not made public.

This group of employees considered the tool’s usability was not very good, however they considered its usefulness high.

The person who acted as employer, the Director of the Web Environment Services, considered that the TRAILER tool could act as a facilitator in selection and identification of new skills processes; he also stated that participants had the opportunity to reflect on what they know and how they have learned it, which represents an unusual but necessary process.

This small technology-based company located in a big city of Portugal specialized in engineering has its core business in areas like space, energy, transports and health. From the 12 employees, 11 were part of the first piloting phase of TRAILER. Typically employees had a degree or a MSc and their age was between 26 and 40 years old.

This company CEO had already a clear understanding about informal learning (IL) and what it represents in their daily knowledge management. He and his employees already acknowledge IL’s importance and some develop IL activities regularly. So, the majority had a good prior recognition of IL, which was slightly improved after the pilots. The most important activities that could trigger IL were recorded as: “Reading”, “Trial and error” and “Searching in the Internet”. In general, comparing with other cases, they show the higher level of agreement relatively to the need for IL activities in: “learn to perform particular tasks” and  “improve their professional status”.

During the first piloting – the learner perspective phase, they showed a good percentage of active users (80%), but few competences were added per informal learning activities (ILA’s), in fact, in average only 1 per person.  Also only 52% of actions were completed on both platforms (an average of 3 ILA’s per user). Regarding the phase of sharing their IL activities and competences, their results were very low: none of the collected activities were made public and only 25% of users’ competences and 20% of ILA’s associated competences were published. This fact undermined the work that could have been accomplished in the second pilot – the employer perspective. Since he could only act upon the published competences, his work was reduced.

In spite of this constrain, the company CEO was able to understand that the main areas of work and interests of their employees were more or less common with the company line of work. He was able to validate some of his employees’ user competences and add some institutional competences to his original list of institutional competences.

His prior work and the work made in the pilots allowed him to reinforce the importance IL management plays nowadays in a company. He considered that even though the TRAILER tool has some usability problems that should be overcome, it presents an excellent way to aid knowledge management within the company, but as any other tool, it should have a control point somewhere in time (in order to clean some unclear or untrue entries). He believes that for employees it can also become useful namely in increasing their awareness of the importance of their individual and/or team’ work. The employees considered the tool needed usability improvement and that the piloting phase was too short to test it more realistically, however they also agreed it could be useful in a company after fully developed.