Comparing Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) across Countries
The core idea of RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) is to promote, to make visible and to make full use of the entire scope of learning results and (work) experience gained by an individual over the lifespan and irrespective of where, when and how the le
- PDF / 418,005 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 439.37 x 666.14 pts Page_size
- 50 Downloads / 154 Views
Comparing Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) across Countries Sandra Bohlinger
27.1
Introduction
Recognition refers to the idea of (publicly) accepting, accrediting and somehow valuing learning results and/or previously received formal qualifications and certificates. In comparison, the term validation refers to the process of identifying, assessing and recognising knowledge, skills and competencies an individual has acquired in various learning contexts outside formal education and training systems. In 2001, the European Commission defined validation as the process of identifying, assessing and recognising a wider range of skills and competences (see Chap. 1 about the use of the concept competences in the EU policy-making context) that individuals develop through their lives and in different contexts, e.g. through education, work and leisure activities. Colardyn and Bjørnåvold (2004: 71) point out that validation is a crucial element to ensure the visibility and to indicate the appropriate value of the learning that took place anywhere and at any time in the life of the individual. Both recognition and validation are understood as ‘a process that identifies, verifies, and recognizes relevant learning (knowledge and skills) acquired through work and other life experience that cannot be fully recognized by the traditional means of credential assessment, credit transfer, articulation, or accreditation’ (Canadian Council on Learning 2009: 4). Conceptually, recognising prior learning is not new. Allusions to the philosophies of Aristotle and Pestalozzi in their valuing of adults’ experience preceded the work of John Dewey, who is regarded as the father of experiential learning, and Conrad (2014: 315 f.) points out that RPL is a ‘respectably old practice, harking back to Socratic and Aristotelian endorsement of the value of experience in learning’. S. Bohlinger (*) Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 M. Mulder (ed.), Competence-based Vocational and Professional Education, Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects 23, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41713-4_27
589
590
S. Bohlinger
While the idea of valuing any kind of learning results has a long tradition, early governmental initiatives were implemented no earlier than in 1940s, when the United States developed its first state-based initiatives during World War II when veterans returning home were seeking opportunities to have their skills recognised for civil occupations (Heyns 2004; SAQA 2002). In Canada, the first initiatives started in the 1980s in Winnipeg/Manitoba to grant credit to learning acquired in noncollege settings in the area of nursing, dental assisting and early childhood education (Conrad 2008; Wihak 2006). In Norway, education for all has been a policy goal since the eighteenth century. Since the first version of the Vocational Training Act was passed in 1952, individuals have been allowed to take crafts examination pr
Data Loading...
