Recognised Prior Learning

RECOGNISING THE KNOWLEDGE

Many people who come to Batchelor Institute bring with them a rich background of skills and learning which can be relevant to their chosen course of study.

People learn in many different ways during their lifetime:

• from life experience
• from work experience
• from education

What you learn in these ways before you apply for a course at the Institute is your ‘prior learning’.

You may have already learned some of the things that the course you want to study aims to teach you (course outcomes). You do not need to study these things again. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) compares your prior learning with the learning outcomes of your course so that you do not have to study the things you already know about.

Before this can happen, however, you need to do a few things to gain this recognition.

First, you will need to look at your own skills and knowledge (prior learning), and write them down or tell someone from Batchelor Institute about them.

Then you need to compare your prior learning with the course outcomes for the course you plan to do.

The next step is to get an RPL application form and fill it out. You can get help to fill it out from Batchelor Institute lecturers.

You may also need to get letters from people you have worked for; copies of your qualifications, photos and samples of your work, and you may need to show people what you can do.

After all this, a meeting will be arranged with a lecturer from Batchelor Institute to discuss your application with you. You should think about bringing someone who knows about your skills and knowledge with you to help you at this meeting.

This meeting is informal, and others there will include the Institute lecturer, an RPL adviser, and anyone you bring along to help you. The lecturer and RPL adviser will ask you about your skills and see if they match up with the learning outcomes of the course. You may be asked to show some of your skills. At the end of the discussion the lecturer and adviser will tell you what recognition of your prior learning they are going to recommend to the Committee that looks after RPL applications at the Institute.

Click on this link to download the RPL policy

Download this file to find out about potential credits for previous studies.