Business, higher education and policy-makers gather together to hear about new upskilling opportunities through recognition of prior learning (RPL)

Leaders and policy makers in higher education and enterprise gathered together on Thursday 2 March 2023 to explore the role of ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL) in upskilling, reskilling, and retaining key members of the workforce. Fourteen higher education institutions including Atlantic Technological University (ATU) are working together with employers and stakeholders to embed RPL in the organisations’ policies and practices.

The initiative means that employees can get recognition from a higher education institution for the prior learning they have done in work, life, and the community which in turn can provide a pathway to and through higher education. Using RPL, a higher education institution gives recognition for what someone already knows, understands, and can do prior to, for example, starting on a programme or module.

This eliminates the duplication of learning, meaning that they don’t have to relearn things they already know. A new dedicated online resource www.priorlearning.ie for learners, businesses, and higher education institutions is the start point for anyone seeking to engage with RPL as a route in to higher education and will provide businesses and enterprise with an understanding of how RPL can benefit workers.

Grace Edge, National Co-ordinator of the RPL in Higher Education Project, says: “Recognition of Prior Learning has been with us on an ad hoc basis for many years. Over the course of this five-year project, 14 higher education institutions are working together with employers and stakeholders to embed RPL in our policies and practices and promote it to a diverse audience”.

“Today is all about bringing higher education leaders and policy makers together with enterprise to explore how we can use RPL to increase access to higher education programmes and progression opportunities to meet current skills needs. We want to be able to enhance our ability to work with businesses collaboratively to create professional development opportunities for staff, develop useful tools, resources, and materials to enable that, and to help them retain and build on their workforce’s existing knowledge and skills.”

Claire McGee, Head of Education and Innovation Policy at Ibec, says: “Staff hiring and retention is a huge issue for employers. In the ‘war for talent’. RPL can help employers to develop from within and retain employees through contributing to career progression, whilst also boosting employee motivation, confidence, and self-esteem.This is a pivotal time for business in Ireland as we deal with the twin transitions of climate change and digitalisation, amplified by shifting demographics, global migration and displacement, and the fallout from Covid and Brexit. It is therefore critical that we build resilient and empowered communities and workplaces which not only survive but thrive in this context of continued change and uncertainty. For that, we need people from all walks of life to engage more frequently in higher education and having their prior learning recognised means they can build on what they already know, without having to ‘start from scratch. Today we heard great examples where RPL helped employees and enterprise save time and money in obtaining qualifications. When RPL is done at scale, with cohorts of employees, we see real potential to address skills needs more effectively and efficiently. The learning from today clearly demonstrates that RPL is not a ‘nice-to-have’ or ‘optional extra’, rather an essential component of an accessible, flexible and responsive higher education system.”