HITsa Training and Employment – Policy and Procedure
Recognition of prior learning/studies
No: HITP0051/12
Issued: 03.02.2006
Reviewed: 14.01.2022
Purpose:
To ensure students commencing training with HITsa are made aware of all forms of recognition available and that HITsa accepts and provides credit to learners for units of competency (unless licensing or regulatory requirements prevent this).
Areas affected:
HITsa Training and Employment staff and sites
General:
The aim of this policy is to ensure a standardised approach to all forms of recognition with HITsa and where resources are located to enable this process to take place. Prior to enrolment HITsa will discuss the potential for recognition.
Recognition is a generic term to cover formal or informal learning and experience of an individual and how it can be applied to formally acknowledge these skills. This can include:
- recognition of prior learning (RPL)
- trade recognition
- overseas qualification assessment
- credit transfer (including national recognition)
RPL is a form of assessment of the competence of an individual, while providing credit is recognising the equivalence of studies previously undertaken and completed successfully.
HITsa reserves the right to not accept a student into training should they be requesting significant RPL, deemed to be more than 50% of the units.
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
RPL is a process that assesses the individual’s non-formal and informal learning to determine the extent to which that individual has achieved the required learning outcomes, competency outcomes towards partial or total completion of a qualification.
RPL is an assessment process where students gain formal recognition for the skills and knowledge, and work or life experience, they have acquired outside the formal education and training system.
National Recognition (NR)
National recognition means that a student automatically has credit for units of competency that they have completed with any other RTO within Australia unless there are additional state requirements that must be met in order to gain RPL.
Credit Transfer (CT)
Credit transfer assesses a previously completed course or unit of training to determine if it provides equivalent learning or competency outcomes to those the student is enrolling in.
Procedure to follow:
National Recognition / Credit Transfer
The student will be required to produce original documents for HITsa to copy and sign off as being a copy of an original document presented and the date. The units of training will then be marked off as competent on the individual training plan. The copy will be attached to the enrolment forms and filed accordingly. No fee will be charged to the student.
If credit transfer is for a superseded unit then a comparison needs to occur. This can be completed by accessing the website www.training.gov.au and using the function – compare training component content. This function will allow you to compare the text content of two training components. A report will be shown identifying where text has been added, removed or modified. You may compare two releases of the same component or two completely different components, however only components of the same type can be compared (a unit with a unit).
Recognition of Prior Learning
Where a student is seeking credit transfer and/or recognition of prior learning they must complete an RPL Student Pack part A and return to HITsa.
After this has been completed and analysed by a HITsa assessor, the next stage of the process will commence. This next stage will vary significantly according to the training qualification and individual student.
HITsa will ensure that all students are treated fairly and equally and adhere to the following principles which include
- Learners must not be required to repeat any unit or module in which they have already been assessed as competent, unless a regulatory requirement or licence condition (including industry licensing schemes) requires this.
- Where a learner provides suitable evidence of successfully completing a unit of training with another RTO, HITsa will provide credit for that unit or module.
- Credit will be granted for studies completed at any authorised issuing organisation, such as a university. In these cases, an analysis as to the equivalence of the study completed with the relevant unit/s or module/s would need to be completed before any credit could be granted.
- HITsa is not obliged to issue a qualification or statement of attainment that is achieved wholly through recognition of units and/or modules completed at another RTO or RTOs.