Can Micro-credentials Contribute to an RPL Outcome?

We threw this question over to our friend and VET industry consultant John Price (‘Pricey’) to see what light he could shed on the matter. Over to you Pricey!

I can clearly remember some of the best training I ever had wasn’t ‘nationally accredited’ but it was developed for specific workplace situations by an organisation that wasn’t necessarily an RTO.

Sometimes this training was through the organisation I worked for, or through an external supplier of goods and services that wanted to sell to our business.

The content was current and engaging, and relevant to my needs at the time. Did I worry if it was nationally accredited? Did my boss worry if it was nationally accredited? The answer was ‘no’ in both cases.

What my boss and I were seeking was to build and develop skills, knowledge and experiences that would set the business apart from its competitors by consistently meeting the customer’s requirements.

‘Current and engaging’, from an enterprise’s perspective, was associated with the training being timely, bite-sized, digestible and learner focussed. Did we get a piece of paper that acknowledged my effort? (I honestly can’t remember!)

I knew I wasn’t going to stay with that business forever: I knew that the business had benefitted from my commitment and involvement; and I knew that each of those experiences I had gained had culminated in me becoming more ‘qualified’ and ‘employable’.

Let’s examine the specific characteristics of the training identified above:

• It’s not necessarily nationally accredited
• It was developed and presented by an organisation that may not be an RTO
• It focussed on a specific workplace situation
• The content was current and engaging and built up over-time
• The training was timely, bite-sized, digestible as well as learner and enterprise-focussed
• The outcomes enabled the enterprise to meet their requirements and those of the customer consistently
• Training certification was supplied
• The training enabled me to be employable; and
• It provided me with a sound foundation that motivated me to consider achieving a qualification – maybe even through RPL (recognition of prior learning)!
  
  

What outcomes do we have in our vocational environment today that covers the points above? Micro-credentials.

Returning to the question: Can micro-credentials contribute to an RPL outcome? Read the definition in the Glossary of the Standards for Training Organisations 2015, and specifically the bold highlighting of the critical manner in which skills, knowledge and experience has been gathered:

“Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) means an assessment process that assesses the competency/s of an individual that may have been acquired through formal, non-formal and informal learning to determine the extent to which that individual meets the requirements specified in the training package or VET accredited courses.”

So, to answer the question: Of course micro-credentials can contribute to an RPL outcome!
A rigorous RPL assessment process will confirm the quality of the skills that the learner has gained, identify if there are any gaps and provide advice on how the gaps can be filled. And even the ‘gap filling’ doesn’t have to be accredited!

Pricey threw back to us, asking how Learning Vault contributes to skill development:

Through the work a we have been doing here at Learning Vault on breaking down units of competency into micro learning topics (micro-credentials), we believe these learning tools can be used on a number of levels:

1. Micro-credentials are a great way to give a student a taste of a new subject area that they might be interested in before committing to a full 12 month program
2. Micro-credentials can be used to extend learning beyond traditional study, so a student who has completed a more general Diploma, for example, can learn specific skills and techniques to aid them in their chosen career and increase their employability
3. The reason why our approach has been to start with a unit of competency is so that there is the rigour to easily stack or map a series of micro-credentials into a full unit, or to be utilised as part of an RPL process; not only as evidence but also for gap filling.

If your organisation is considering offering micro-credentials, get in touch - we would love to help!