10 May Recognition of Prior Learning – a blessing or a curse?
Over the past few days, as the Director of HBA Learning Centres, I have had reason to speak to quite a few auditors who contract to the various VET regulators around the country. They have been given little notice about the need to hold BSB51615 Diploma in Quality Auditing. Of recent times they have only had to show equivalency to have their contracts renewed, this year the rules have changed for them.
It is always interesting to chat to Auditors because they see the best and the worst in VET and once you get to know them you realise they are just like you and me; they simply have a job to do and that is to make sure the VET sector is in the best shape it could be.
My job was to assess RPL claims against BSB51615 Diploma of Quality Audit and I have to say, as you would expect, the claims were in pretty good shape with plenty of evidence properly mapped against the criteria. It might surprise some readers to know that even a well organised claim takes quite a while to assess. Each one took at least 3 hours of work and that does not include the waiting time for supplementary evidence etc.
RPL is one of the keys to a successful VET sector as we all have skills and knowledge that have been learned on the job and some of those skills and areas of knowledge, if supported by quality evidence, can lead to Competence being declared for a Unit of Competency.
So what is RPL you might ask? In simple terms it is an assessment process that identifies whether specific skills, knowledge and competencies exist in an individual. The model used consists of the Units of Competency that form a particular qualification. Eg in BSB51615 Diploma of Quality Auditing there is 8 Units of Competency, all of which are electives. The Packaging Rules tell us which UOC’s may be selected. http://training.gov.au/Training/Details/BSB51615 and the UOC’s tell us what someone needs to know and be able to do.
At HBA Learning Centres we have individual RPL kits which are user friendly and self-explanatory for each of the qualifications we have on our Scope of Registration. If you are interested in undertaking a qualification it is possible you may be entitled to RPL. We encourage you to consider whether that is so because a successful RPL claim results in two things:
- Less work for you
- Less cost to you.
Some time ago I issued an open invitation which states, if you are not sure whether you would be successful in an RPL claim and you don’t want to go to the trouble of detailing an RPL tool and collecting and mapping evidence, simply drop me a line and tell me in less than 200 words why you think you might have a claim. I will provide you with a no cost, informal opinion of your chances of a successful claim.
Stay safe in this uncertain world of ours.
Harold Baldry