Churchill Education has been in the RPL (or Recognition of Prior Learning) business for over ten years, now.
Over that time, we’ve been pleased to help many thousands of people translate their experience into qualifications. As many of you know, Churchill Education was started because one of our co-founders got qualifications through RPL himself, was impressed with the results, and saw an opportunity to offer a better service for others in his position.
But, we’ve also heard stories during this time of operators who haven’t done the industry, RPL providers or the process any favours with the way they’ve gone about the job.
We aren’t out to paint all of our competitors with a broad brush, and we won’t be naming and shaming any culprits here. Instead, we’ve decided to focus on what you need to look out for when you’re sourcing a provider of RPL – like overselling.
When we assess your eligibility for qualifications through RPL, we want to award you the highest and best qualifications possible. We want to award you the ones that will be most suited to the path you want to pursue. We also want to award you the qualifications that correspond with your level of experience.
For example, we don’t want to award you multiple qualifications in the same area. suggesting that a candidate should get a Certificate 4, Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Leadership and Management, and pay for each of these qualifications accordingly. But, why would you need all of them?
If you’re eligible to get qualifications in several different streams, we will be guided by what you tell us about the direction you want to take with your career when advising you which ones to go ahead with. If you tell us you want to move into management consultancy work, we won’t suggest you pick up the Certificate IV in Work Health and Safety that you’re entitled to, as well – it’s unlikely that a Work Health and Safety qual would help you establish your consulting career.
We have also seen recommendations that a candidate get a Diploma level qualification when they have only six months of experience in a field. In six months, it is unlikely that someone has gained the knowledge, skills, training and experience that’s commensurate with a full Diploma qualification. And, sometimes a provider may tell you they can give you a Diploma because they don’t have the Certificate IV qualification on their scope. That is their risk to take, but if they were audited and the evidence was found to be insufficient, it’s possible that your qualification would be invalid, too.
