Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Background

Recognition of Prior Learning or RPL has increasingly been the focus of skills development policy in a number of countries in recent years, as a way to offer a more flexible, inclusive and efficient route into skills training or better jobs for people whose skills have not been formally recognized.

The Recognition of Prior Learning is a concept that has been gaining increased interest from policy makers in the area of vocational education and skills in recent years. Two features combine to make it of particular interest in India are: Firstly, it particularly speaks to engaging people in learning who have previously been excluded for one reason or another. Secondly, it offers the possibility of capturing the latent skills present in an economy where much of the workforce is informally employed. India aims to skill 500 million people by 2022, a large proportion of whom will necessarily be people who are already working. Of these, many belong to socially, economically or otherwise disadvantaged groups for whom embarking on any form of education or training may be a daunting step. In these circumstances, interest in RPL as a tool for engagement is unsurprising.

What is Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) 

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a process used by regulatory bodies, adult learning centers, career development practitioners, military organizations, Human Resources professionals, employers, training institutions, colleges and universities around the world to evaluate skills and knowledge acquired outside the classroom for the purpose of recognizing competence against a given set of standards, competencies, or learning outcomes.

Thus, RPL is the process of recognizing previous learning, often experiential, towards gaining a qualification. It identifies your skills and relevant workforce experience to issue qualifications after verifying your competence against the established industry standards.

RPL involves the formal assessment of previously unrecognized skills and knowledge that an individual has achieved outside the formal education and training systems.

It recognizes and certifies person’s previous learning and work experience as per established standards in the industry. Hence, it is helpful in formalizing the knowledge and skills of informal workforce, besides enhancing their mobility through virtual skill certificate which could form a key component of the Skills Passport.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in the Indian context

A huge section of India’s unorganized workforce is unskilled and semi-skilled. Most of them pick up skills and knowledge in an informal set up by observing people or working under their guidance or through complete self-learning. As a result, even though they manage to get a job and earn a decent wage or salary, they may not be able to improve their skills. This also affects their productivity and quality of output. They need access to training programs and support from their employers to skill and upskill themselves. This is where Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) can help them get assessed and certified on their current competencies as per National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) levels. RPL also shows them a path to bridge their current knowledge and skill levels to reach a competency level or go for higher skills for professional growth.

Benefits of RPL

The concept of portability of standards through RPL certification entitles the workers to apply for higher learning and opens up many avenues for utilizing the credits acquired through the certificate for other purposes. This includes access to finance, formal acceptance of skills in the labor market and a path towards better wages and salaries as a certified tradesperson. For the migrant workforce, the certificate could be a virtual evidence of their competencies, enabling them anytime-anywhere access using biometrics/Aadhaar. What RPL does is allow people to demonstrate that they are capable of undertaking specific tasks or working in certain industries based on evidence of skills and knowledge gained throughout their life.

The assessment, which is followed by a certification, gives an edge to an otherwise informal worker. It provides the employee with the confidence, social recognition and empowerment that are necessary to negotiate his future employment.

Following successful assessment, a candidate is given a financial reward, in addition to certification. For some of the assessed participants, certain skill gaps get identified. To re-skill the person, bridge programmes combined with RPL have been designed. The duration of these bridge programmes ranges from 60 to 68 hours. Sector-specific training is given while the person is employed. With changing technologies, most of the industries do not have the capacity or the manpower to re-equip their workforce. Such an initiative is of great advantage to the workforce and the employer.

Benefits for the workforce

Through RPL assessment and certification, the candidates will be able to align existing competencies with the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) for better opportunities in higher education. Besides creating an equitable system, RPL also helps them explore different options in skilling and upskilling to bridge the knowledge and skill gaps.

Benefits for the industry

By getting the workforce certified under RPL, the industry gets the dual advantage (1) formally recognized skill levels mapped with Qualification Pack (QP)s and job roles and (2) open up different paths for workers to upskill and grow through short term training and bridge courses.

RPL assesses the prior knowledge and skills of individuals and certifies them mainly in the unregulated sector. The objectives of RPL are:

·        Align the competencies of the unregulated sectors of the country with the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).

·        Enhance the chances of employment of individuals and provide them with more options for higher education.

·        Reduce the inequalities that are present due to the privileges given to some types of skills and knowledge over others.

India's large informal sector - which accounts for a large part of the millions the country aims to train 500 million workforce by 2022 - includes many people who have acquired skills through their work but who have had little or no engagement with formal education. If those people can be accessed and given the opportunity to have their skills recognized, then this could potentially act as motivation for them to engage in further training. For people who may never have considered themselves as candidates for a certificate of achievement, the very act of recognition has the potential to change deep-seated attitudes and contribute to a movement towards a positive learning culture in India. Now, then, is a good time for India to be exploring RPL and to be developing those models for introducing it that will best suit the country's unique characteristics. RPL in India is unlikely to look like it has elsewhere. Innovative approaches will need to be found, for instance, in order to access the 93% of the workforce that is in the 31 informal economy - much more emphasis will need to be placed on community-based routes than on employer-based routes.

(Information gathered and articulated in the above article is through secondary research)