Role of recognition of prior learning for emerging economies: learning from a four sector pilot project in India

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) has increasingly been recognised as a useful way to certify experience and competencies gained in the workplace informally. Particularly pertinent is RPL in the context of international migration or in economies, where system reforms seek to overcome challenges related to access to formal training and qualifications. India has the goal to skill 300 million of its growing workforce and provide them access at various levels to certification and further learning opportunities. As a part of the overall system reforms, the Government of India, jointly with the ILO, pilot tested RPL in four sectors in collaboration with the industry and built the foundation for wider replication for another 26 growth sectors by undertaking a tracer study and evaluation. This paper can empirically establish that RPL has had a positive effect on income opportunities, occupational safety, social status and openness to further learning. The paper further discusses the challenges encountered during the implementation of the RPL projects before concluding with recommendations, highlighting the aspects required for quality RPL in an emerging economy. It closes by emphasising the importance of conducting tracer studies to determine impact and the need to provide complementary training during the RPL process.     

谈WIN2000无盘启动

本文介绍WIN2000无盘工作站启动的一种新方法,此方法不需要WIN2000终端卡和特殊的网络设备,也不是应用现在最为普及的“PXE”技术来启动,它是利用WINNT时代所应用的“RPL”技术,在WIN2000中溶入WINNT的技术,使组网更加容易。     

The interpretation of a knowledge claim in the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and the impact of this on RPL practice

The question addressed in this paper is: what does a knowledge claim consist of in the context of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)? The research comprises a case study of RPL applicants' entry into a postgraduate diploma (a fourth-year programme) in project management. The focus is on the knowledge claims made as part of the RPL application by experienced project managers and leaders. Three different aspects of the knowledge claims are analysed: what the knowledge claim consists of; what the academic interpretation of the claims is; and how the interpretation of the claims impacts on the RPL approach. The findings deal with the knowledge of the project management cycle prior to entry into higher education. It is found that knowledge claims not only consist of theoretical knowledge but also mainly situational knowledge, ability and attitude. In addition, the knowledge claims made in the RPL application based on the relevant and substantial knowledge are acknowledged by the academic institution in question. The RPL approach that results from the interpretation of the knowledge claims does conform to one RPL approach, within the paradigm of project management.     

Increasing the supply of secondary teachers in sub‐Saharan Africa: a stakeholder assessment of policy options in six countries

Over the next decade many countries of sub‐Saharan Africa will face a demand for qualified secondary school teachers that current systems for teacher recruitment, training, deployment and retention will be unable to meet. While strategies for increasing teacher supply to meet this shortage have been suggested, less attention has been given to investigating the acceptability of these potential solutions by those educators closest to the school and classroom level and who often serve as gatekeepers to policy implementation. Kingdon’s multiple streams model is the framework used in this study to assess the feasibility of key strategies widely offered as possible solutions to resolve the projected teacher shortage. This study investigated the responses of 114 secondary school teachers, headteachers and education officials across six countries to policy options for increasing teacher supply. While none of the groups supported options to increase the supply through changed teacher training, there was support among all three groups for options that affected retention, including increased in‐service training and distance education, more mentorship for new teachers and more opportunities for teachers to network with each other. These findings suggest that policy‐makers in sub‐Saharan African countries need to build political support among education stakeholders to find the most feasible and viable solutions to address the large teacher shortages through both increasing supply and retention.     

作为终身学习评价体系的澳大利亚资格框架

建立针对个人学习成果的综合评价体系,是构建终身学习社会的必然要求.澳大利亚资格框架(AQF)是在终身学习需要不断增长的条件下建立起来的;它涵盖了传统的正规教育和职业教育与培训,使各种资格可以相互比较与衔接;它还通过先前学习认定(RPL)对非正规和非正式的学习成果进行评价,更扩大了传统的评价范围.因此,澳大利亚资格框架正是一种终身学习评价体系,它对未来构建终身学习社会具有重要意义.     

澳大利亚TAFE教育中的 RPL/RCC探析

澳大利亚TAFE教育中实施前期学习和现有能力的认可制度，拓宽了职业教育的生源范围，并为学员在不同职业院校、培训机构和大学之间转学搭建起一座畅通的立交桥。本文介绍了这两项制度的内涵、由来、理论依据和实施办法，以期对我国的职业教育提供启示和借鉴。     

100M(PXE)无盘教学网组网方案

无盘模式是组建教学网中广泛应用的一种高性能价格比方案，本文较详细地介绍了无盘工作站的基本工作原理，从无盘技术的原理及应用方面分析了传统无盘技术RPL的缺陷和新型无盘技术PXE的主要优点，详细阐述了PXE无盘教学网组网的技术细节。     

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) – The case for Recognition of Prior Learning sites and knowledges in South Africa's transforming education system

By definition and purpose, education is the development of human capital towards meeting the individual and social needs of learners and their societies. This transdisciplinary collaboration parallels the underpinning principle of Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1990) to South Africa's post-colonial legitimation of alternative sites and enskilment canons. Central to both is legitimation of knowledge acquisition from communities of practice or sites and ‘knowers’ (Mphahlele, 1992) ‘outside formal institutions’ of teaching/learning. Considered and termed ‘informal’ and by deduction, less legitimate for meritorious enskilment, the 62 and 65 decrees a transformative paradigm and method of validating these sites and their skills production. SAQA highlights the fact that the pedagogical approach of such sites is context- and learner-centred with demonstrable socially valuable skills. This post-colonial mandate thus centres the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as an acknowledgement of multiple foci of skills production, decreeing their overdue certification, as in our case study of the Van Wyk situation. The approach confronts and deconstructs the colonial marginalisation of human capital from outside ‘formal’/official institutions. It is part of the ideological framework of redressing the race and class exclusion mechanisms of artisans and others from the landscape of skills possession. It subscribes therefore to the canon of different ‘ways of knowing’ (Mosala, 1998). Van Wyk's narrative exemplify the merits of ‘outside-institutions’ learning and enskilment to various levels of complexity. The objective of such legitimation is that certification provides credibility and legitimacy, thereby widening the marketability of apprentices' skills. The social recognition and accorded certification thereof carries uncontested confirmation of expertise.     

To what extent do discipline,knowledge domain and curriculum affect the feasibility of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in higher education?

What is the role of knowledge in the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in Higher Education? This paper presents the findings of empirical research at a Canadian university. A position of knowledge differentiation located in a social realist sociology of knowledge is adopted. This is not an obvious or usual position for scholars of RPL, because it holds that what distinguishes formal academic knowledge from experiential knowledge is a question of the structure and purpose of the knowledge. Research into a range of academic and professional education programmes points to degrees of – and different types of – possible connection between formal and experiential knowledge. Findings offer an indication of the type of programmes in relation to which the implementation of RPL is likely to be most feasible. Additionally, findings show how social factors other than knowledge types enable or constrain the implementation of RPL. Avenues for further research are suggested.     

New courses for Trojan horses: rethinking RPL in a South African teacher education curriculum

This article reflects on some of the findings of a research project which investigated the practice of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) within a major national teacher upgrading project in South Africa – the National Professional Diploma in Education (NPDE). The article analyses the ways in which a range of contextual factors have positioned RPL within the NPDE curriculum. Rather than support evaluations of RPL in the NPDE which have argued that RPL should be prior to rather than within the curriculum, the article uses and critically examines a theorized typology which characterizes RPL as ‘credit-exchange’, ‘developmental’, ‘radical’ and/or ‘Trojan horse’ to show how RPL in the NPDE has combined elements of these approaches in a distinctive way. The article suggests that the ‘Trojan horse’ model may provide the best framework for the use of RPL in linking qualifications-led professional development of practising teachers with other forms of continuing professional development. In conclusion the article reflects on how Trojan horse RPL could be included in critical engagement with the new national framework for teacher education and professional development.