Formal education is the typical and most common form of education. This education system is hierarchical, structured, chronological, graded, and exhibits top-down learning. Formal education is seen within elementary school to high school, all the way to university and higher educational learning (Smith, 1996, 2001).

Informal education is the least structured form of education. It is a part of the lifelong attitude and process to continuously keep learning. Informal education manifests in daily experiences, influences, and resources within a person's environment, like interacting with family, friends, and colleagues, at work, home, out in public, or on social media. It is what you learn from everyday experiences and instances that equate informal education (Smith, 1996, 2001).