APEL - Value Your Experience

Tuesday 06 May 2008Comment on this article Permlink

What is APEL?

Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) offers the opportunity to gain university credits for experience gained through work, voluntary work and leisure related activities.

APEL is a process for recognising and valuing previous work experience.

In order to gain credit through APEL the learner has to produce evidence, which will reflect on the learning that has taken place through work.

How will APEL be assessed?

A portfolio of evidence, which could include a reflective account, reports, assignments or a presentation, will be assessed.

This will be carried out by matching the evidence to the course learning outcomes.

The evidence has to be valid, reliable, authentic, and still relevant to current practice.

How are qualification level and credits identified?

The qualification level and credits will be identified through matching the learning against the learning outcomes for a specific module or general level ‘descriptors’.

How can this help you?

The APEL award can lead to university credits that could gain entry to a Higher Education course or credits towards a recognised qualification.

What support can I get?

The APEL award can be achieved through self study or through undertaking an APEL module, the format that the award will use will depend on the institution.

If you have not previously had access to Higher Education you may need guidance from the institution you are applying to in order to understand the language of APEL and how to build your portfolio.

What are the benefits of APEL?

You will have the opportunity to gain entry to a Higher Education course, you could even gain entry to Year 2 or 3 of a course instead of starting from the beginning or exemption from specific modules
Recognises the value of work experience
You can reduce the time spent working towards a Higher Education qualification.

What are the issues with applying for APEL?

It is not always easy to find the APEL contact in an institution, APEL is usually assessed within the university faculties and there is very little information on institution websites or in the prospectus.

Not all universities accept or deliver APEL modules.