RPL

WHAT IS RPL(Recognition of Prior Learning)?

Recognition of Prior Learning is a term you hear more and more these days so what does it mean? Recognition of Prior Learning otherwise known as RPL is a process of identifying your knowledge and skills against a qualification through the identification, mediation, assessment and acknowledgement of knowledge and skills obtained through informal, non-formal or formal learning.

In simple terms that mean that Recognition of Prior Learning is acknowledgement for work you have done or skills you have acquired throughout your lifetime that can count towards a qualification. Recognition of Prior Learning provides an opportunity for you to identify your learning, have it assessed and formally acknowledged in the form of a qualification.

RPL is a very simple and straightforward process of assessing someone’s skills or knowledge, regardless of where and how these were learned. Unlike other forms of assessment, it doesn’t judge someone’s evidence of competence solely by the credentials or qualifications they have achieved, although this can form part of their claim. What RPL actually does is allow people to demonstrate that they are capable of undertaking specific tasks or working in certain industries based on evidence of skills and knowledge gained throughout their life.

RPL is assessment of skills and knowledge against certain criteria. However, while such criteria is generally less descriptive than that used in competency standards, it is outcomes-based, meaning the outcome of somebody doing something, such as the outcome of writing is a letter, not process-based such as learning.