Work-based learning

1986-1994
In the Trust’s first year, the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) funded two projects. The Validation of companies’ in-house courses was to run an academic slide rule over courses offered by Sainsburys, ICL Wimpey’s to assess their credit worthiness in higher education. Learning while Earning paired Oxford Polytechnic and Wimpey Foods, Coventry Polytechnic and Jaguar Cars, Wolverhampton Polytechnic and Computer Services and Sheffield Polytechnic and the MSC. Six volunteers were recruited from each who were given opportunities for gaining credit through APEL, involvement with their company’s in house courses and a learning agreement negotiated between the volunteer, the employer and the academic supervisor. Student results showed credit towards both first and master’s degrees, diploma and very significant career advancement.

The Trust was then funded by the Department of Employment to do another tranche of Validation of companies’ in-house courses. It worked with the Commission for Racial Equality, the Central Council for the Education and Training of Social Workers, police and army training, and youth projects and it evaluated the Ford Motor Companies Employee and Development Programme. A handbook was produced for Training and Enterprise Councils to promote employee learning in small and medium sized companies.

As the culmination of these explorations of uses for APEL, the Department of Employment funded Work Based Learning for Academic Credit. This was to test the viability of including non-specific work experience lasting one ninth of a degree programme, in non vocational degree courses, to generate the same amount of academic credit as from classroom learning. Chester College, Liverpool Polytechnic and Liverpool University collaborated in what was so successful that it was then mainstreamed in those institutions. This was work experience for intentional learning through negotiated agreements again between student, academic and employer, on regular undergraduate degree courses.

Earlier the Trust was commissioned by the Department of Employment to conduct an evaluation of the Ford Motor Company’s Employee Development and Assistance Programme (EDAP). It was a highly innovative programme, financed through an agreement between trade unions and the company, using a self-governing system to offer opportunities for employees to undertake any further learning which they chose for themselves: it had no connection whatsoever with Ford’s own training programmes for its own business purposes.

As a result of that evaluation the Trust was commissioned to write a pamphlet on Employee Development for SMEs, setting out the ways that small and medium sized businesses might develop similar programmes; copies were sent to all Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs). Kent TEC commissioned the Trust to promote and oversee a pilot project covering different parts of the county.

Learning for Success was funded by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (with GEC as the partner) to encourage managers and supervisors to take more responsibility for staff development. “Learning at work is the foundation of skill enhancement…the role of managers and supervisors is crucial to maximize the effectiveness of work based learning.”

1995-2000
The Trust worked with Essex TEC to investigate how employers were implementing Employee Development Schemes, which were designed to generate a culture of learning and flexibility in the workforce.

Other work in this area included: a contract with Anglia Polytechnic University on encouraging and facilitating the recognition of learning that happens at work; advice to the Engineering Council on the organisation, provision, assessment and accreditation of work based ‘Matching Sections’; an evaluation of the ADAPT Transform Project in which Essex TEC aimed to support local businesses in the implementation of business strategies and in training business advisers; New Directions, which helped employees in defence industries to identify and plan for new employment opportunities.

2001-
Where Credit is Due; handbook on applying credit to the Police Probationary Training Programme was the report of a project funded by the Home Office. It developed a training programme ‘to introduce a system to identify, support and develop officers who possess specified qualifications, competencies and extraordinary potential.’ It was to find ways of reducing the time taken on the training programme, to accelerate completion rates, to increase motivation, widen and make recruitment more diverse, recognize learning from outside police formal learning programmes and raise awareness of the value of community experience.

Higher Education

1986-1994
The Assessment of Prior Experiential Learning project was completed for CNAA and the Potential of APEL in Universities was funded by the Department of Employment. This involved working with Nottingham University, the University of Kent at Canterbury, Warwick University and Goldsmiths College, University of London.

The Youth Access Feasibility Study of demographic changes in the 16 to 18 age group forecast far reaching implications for employers and educational institutions alike. Youth Access devised an innovative method of providing access to higher education to meet changing requirements through a new form of partnership between young people, educational establishments and employers.

The Higher Education Quality Council commissioned the Trust to research APEL and its significance as background material contribution for David Robertson to write Choosing to Change.

1995-2000
Mapping APEL looked at Accreditation of Prior and Experiential Learning in English Higher Education. It surveyed ‘the extent to which APEL is being applied in English Higher Education, to identify affective practices which would allow APEL to be applied cost effectively.’ The work revealed that 82 of the 106 institutions which responded to detailed questionnaires had public policies. It identified the barriers to further development; lack of advice and information, availability, staff development and fees.

Scaling Up was another HE project, funded by the Open University’s Validation Services (OUVS) unit. It was a report to the OUVS and the University of the Highlands and Island project ‘to explore ways to make APEL available on a cost effective basis to larger numbers of individual students…to identify good practices, issues blocking progress and potential approaches to APEL provision in order to establish the feasibility of providing APEL in volume on a cost effective basis through the delivery of OUVS accredited Institutions and Assessment Centres.’ It recommended staff development modules, distance learning provision, utilisation of the web, closer analysis of a credit framework and becoming a National Champion.

2001 -
Gaining Credit was a project with Birkbeck College concerned with widening access higher education for otherwise under-represented groups. It investigated how much use was made of the knowledge which students brought with them, and how far it was repeated in the courses they followed. An APEL module for students was produced to explain what was involved in undertaking APEL, going through the various stages of what had to be done. This was complemented with guideline documents for academic staff.

Action Learning in the Community (ALIC) focused on extending the pool of Higher Education students into the marginalised groups of socially excluded learners. It established that these groups contain many potentially able adults who, for one reason or another, find themselves in low-grade employment, in unemployment and/or rebuilding their lives on a wide range of recovery programmes. Because of their past educational experiences these potential students often presented themselves as particularly vulnerable learners who required strong personal support. The project established that widening participation in higher education to otherwise under-represented groups demanded an integrated approach, that attracting non-traditional learners required a non-traditional strategy, and that such students would require a period of personalised intensive care to bridge them into the formal learning situation. The success of ALIC led to Goldsmiths College adopting the programme, mainstreaming it as part of its widening participation activities funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) under the title of Open Book.

Further Education

1986-1994
The Further Education Unit commissioned Aspects of Experiential Learning; case studies, a survey of practices in further and higher education institutions. It also commissioned a survey of a small number of colleges to produce case studies of what was actually happening with regard to the accreditation of prior experiential learning. The Assessment of Prior Learning and Learner Services) aimed to guide and co-ordinate the work of all staff with key roles within colleges which intended to introduce AP(E)L facilities as a mainstream activity.

Adult Learning

1995-2000
Listening to Learners was a consultancy on Adult Literacy Education in Scotland which identified lack of information and accessibility, choice for individuals, programmes of progression and the culture of learning as the obstacles to great participation and therefore areas for improvement.

Informal Learning was a conference held in collaboration with the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education and funded by the Lifelong Learning Foundation. It covered the need to highlight the significance of Lifelong Learning, the dimensions of informal learning, the next steps for research and the opportunities for development, which could be identified in current legislation.

2001 -
Learning Link was funded by Essex TEC to survey student demand for learning, schemes for widening access, the encouragement of self assessment and ownership of learning, the quality of supply, the partnerships between learners, trainers and businesses, to evaluate their effectiveness, and to identify gaps

Link Up was funded by the Basic Skills Agency, as part of a national programme. It recruited 300 non-traditional volunteers (in Great Yarmouth) to support and recruit onto programmes people with basic skills needs.

Youth Training
A project in 1987 used AP(E)L with some of the least able and least motivated trainees to encourage them to realise that they were better learners than their discouraging school experience suggested. A further project, in 1987-89, worked with a group of YTS supervisors to improve their supervisory skills and encourage them to undertake further education and training. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation-funded project in 1988-89 worked with YTS trainees at the opposite end of the ability scale. Learning Contracts for YTS Trainees aimed to provide a substantial record of achievement which could be used for entry to further and higher education if appropriate.

Professions

1986-1994
Exploring New Routes to Qualifying Training produced a model for credit accumulation for courses of training leading to qualified status for social workers. This was followed by a consultative exercise to devise a method of giving credit for experiential learning toward the newly introduced Diploma in Social Work. That method was put into practice with ten providers of the DipSW and work was carried out on a credit-rating exercise on some of the courses offered by the Open University and the Open Learning Foundation. It was followed by another credit-rating exercise; to explore the potential credit for NVQ levels 4 and 5 in Criminal Justice Services in relation to the DipSW for Probation Officers.

Voluntary Sector

1986-1994
The Commission for Racial Equality funded a pilot project to test AP(E)L as a helping instrument to encourage members of ethnic minorities to enter further education.

The National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) funded AP(E)L and Unpaid Work. These had important implications for voluntary organisations as well as further education.

1995-2000
APEL for School Governors responded to the realisation by Essex County Council that APEL could be of benefit for the volunteers who were governors. The project was not to design a compulsory qualification for becoming a school governor, nor to create two classes of governor, but to celebrate the contribution and commitment that people make as volunteer governors and to recognise the learning that they achieve as a result.

2001 –
The Royal Society of Arts commissioned the Trust to conduct a preliminary Evaluation of its Project 2001. This project was to ‘focus on the voluntary sector where the scope for turning experience into recognized qualifications was to a large extent unexplored.’ It was to conceptualise a ‘university of the community’ whose ‘graduates’ would be accredited on the basis of skills, competence and knowledge gained through their experience in voluntary work rather than through studying. The evaluation (Qualified by Experience, RSA) documented the benefits for volunteers, voluntary bodies themselves and-high lighted the need to overcome financial and organizational obstacles.

Overcoming disadvantage

1986-1994
Insight was work with young offenders. The project was run in collaboration with Goldsmiths College and financed by the Pilgrim Trust and the City Parochial Foundation. Its aim was ‘to reduce the offending behaviour cycle by empowering students on the programme to gain insights into themselves, and their past and present situations, in a way that will help to remove ‘roadblocks’ to taking up and continuing with educational opportunities and employment.’ This work was continued with the ALIC project (see 5.3)

1995-2000
Recognising Ability – Make your Experience Count was designed ‘to help people with disabilities to recognize what they had gained through the experience and demonstrate their abilities when applying for a course or a job.’ The project produced a pack of materials with work books to guide and help individuals reflect on and record what they thought were their learning achievements. It was funded by the National Lottery’s Charities Board and the materials were distributed widely by the Department of Education and Employment and through the Employers’ Forum on Disability.

Study Tours

1986-1994
Through CAEL, the WK Kellogg Foundation funded a small Scholar Exchange Programme (Study Tours) to enable some twelve senior UK academics and administrators, in small groups of four, to get some hands-on experience of how American Colleges and Universities handled PLA. Participation was by invitation only. It was a consciously promoted staff development initiative to spread the theory and practice of APEL as widely as possible in higher end further education. It was so successful that by the time the Study Tours finished in 1994, 180 British educators had participated.

Learners All Worldwide was an evaluation funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation of Study Tours. It was conducted by Morris Keeton, founding President of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning in the USA, William Craft Vice President of Bunker Hill Community College, Boston and Norman Evans founding Director of the Trust. The evaluation confirmed the role of Study Tours, both as a powerful contribution to participants’ professional development and to the development of institutions. Those findings were disseminated to Canada, France, South Africa and Ecuador to test the possibilities for the application of a similar programmed.

Europe

2001-
Since he gave a keynote speech in Estonia about APEL to a European group, through the EU-funded European University Lifelong Learning Network (EULLearN), Norman Evans has been involved in seminars and conferences in several different countries, and recently wrote for, and co-edited, Recognising Experiential Learning; practices in European universities. Malcolm Barry also contributed.

In May 2006 there was a pilot Scholar Exchange/Study Tour programme for six Europeans from different countries to spend hands-on time in three London universities, in the same way that Study Tours were conducted in the USA.

The Trust hopes that the success of the pilot, with the other activities, may lead to a programme of systematic professional development to support the initiative, and that wider involvement in Europe will follow.

Publications and Website
LET aims to promote the concept of learning from experience and share what it has demonstrated through its work. In the past the Trust produced a range of in-house publications to provide clear and practical guidelines to assessing prior and experiential learning, disseminate the results of projects and to inform discussion. It is now concentrating on using its web site for dissemination, which allows for updating of reports and speedier and more accessible publication.