What is RPL?
If you have skills, but no qualification, or you wish to gain a new qualification and gain credit for studies already completed, we can help you. Our user-friendly RPL assessment can be completed through email, mail and direct Skype voice/video or telephone interviews. It is also possible to submit work documents as evidence, or to be assessed in your workplace, by arrangement.
RPL is an assessment only process that looks at the skills and knowledge that you have attained:
- by prior study
- through work experience
- through life skills
RPL is a way of fast tracking through a qualification, and at a lower cost, but should not be seen as ‘the easy way’. It requires effort on your part to find evidence, and that evidence must support the Rules:
- it must be valid in terms of meeting the standards set for the qualification
- it must be your own work or relate directly to you
- it must be current, especially in critical safety, IT or industry skills
- it must be sufficient to allow us to make a judgement of competence
Note that special conditions may apply to currency and type of evidence that must be provided for some qualifications, and that special notes and manuals on RPL for TAE qualifications are given on the TAE qualification page.
This means that in assessing your claim for competence, we have to be thorough in working with you to match your evidence against the Units.
Our RPL process is simple and minimises the ‘red tape’ from your perspective:
- ask us for an enrolment form and select your Units and send this in
- attach any evidence you have readily to hand to support your claim for competence in your chosen units
- we then assess this against a skills schedule and contact you to discuss ways of finding more evidence
- at the end of the process, if there are gaps, we discuss whether these require gap training or can be filled by challenge testing
Challenge testing:
- is being asked to prove you have the knowledge and skills through undertaking assessment tasks
- it is not the same as training, so is costed in the initial RPL charge
- it is an ideal way to prove that you have skills where you have no documentary evidence
Fees for RPL services:
- obtaining a qualification by RPL reduces the costs by up to two thirds of the training fees
- we charge an initial RPL assessment fee at enrolment, which includes the fee for assessing challenge tests or conducting interviews with referees
- should you need gap training, you will be billed for an additional fee, which is very moderate
- no gap training fees are invoiced until you have agreed that you consent to undertake the training
- we offer installment options for payment of all fees, but these must be paid in full before a qualification is issued
If you cannot complete the qualification, either because of insufficient evidence or you decide to discontinue the process:
- you will be issued with a Statement of Attainment documenting all the Units in which you have proven competency
- if you ask to resume the process within six months of discontinuing, you will be allowed to re-renrol for RPL with no additional RPL assessment costs
- additional gap training costs will still apply if you re-enrol as a continuing student
For more information about RPL in any qualification we have on scope and assistance with evidence gathering, contact us directly.