The integration of in-house professional training with academic awards systems has developed rapidly in the UK over the past few years. The author sets out the basic rationale for credit rating of in-house company training for academic qualifications, maps the development of the trend in the UK, and argues that the benefits of this kind of collaboration between business and higher education can be substantial and wide-ranging for both parties.
Purpose
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a process by which both formal learning for recognised awards, informal learning from experience and non-formal learning for uncertificated but planned learning is given academic recognition. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper refers to international developments in RPL and then focuses upon the extensive and innovative use of RPL by Middlesex University and the developing RPL work at the Australian Institute of Business.
Findings
The Middlesex experience of recognition of learning from experience as part of the development of customised work-based learning programmes demonstrates the potential of RPL for business and management programmes.
Originality/value
The use of RPL for admission and/or credit in standard programmes enables individuals to have their work-based knowledge acknowledged as relevant, worthwhile and equivalent to learning obtained in the higher education classroom.
This issue of Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences concentrates on approaches to learning, teaching and assessment in the social sciences and features contributors from universities in many different parts of the world. Themes that run through the whole issue include learning from experience, responding to students’ needs and making space for creativity and risk-taking.
Recognition of prior learning: opportunities and challenges for higher education