ONCAT

The Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA) is excited to announce funding from the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) to investigate training associated with prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR), also known as recognition of prior learning (RPL), from the perspective of those who work in the sector or in related fields such as career advisor, immigration counsellor, hiring manager, academic pathway facilitator, competency assessor, or program administrator.

ONCAT’s Resource Grant of $60,000 is intended to support the identification and collection of new information related to learner mobility that can enrich ONCAT’s ongoing research activities. The agreement was signed on March 28, 2024, and one of the first project deliverables was a Focus Group in May 2024, in conjunction with the 32nd Annual RPL Conference at Loyalist College. The goal was to gain initial insight into where RPL practitioners and other stakeholders work, and what RPL training they have had in the past and may require in the future.

CAPLA’s Certificates and Certification Working Group continues to provide advice on the ONCAT-funded project, as it relates to the RPL training needs of those who work in the diverse fields of advising, assessing and facilitating the practice, as well as for employers looking for trained RPL workers. Surveys and additional research tools will be used in early 2025 to reach as many sectors as possible. Based on results of the Environmental Scan, subsequent phases may be undertaken to explore a pan-Canadian RPL Certificate and/or a voluntary certification program. Project activities which end in April 2025, include locating and posting resources such as PLAR/RPL courses, environmental scans, certificates, frameworks, RPL worker roles and competencies on the CAPLA website.

“It’s wonderful that ONCAT has supported so many innovative PLAR/RPL initiatives which will improve access to appropriate educational pathways for non-traditional learners while at the same time, support practitioners with RPL competencies looking for employment now and in the future,” said Andy Brown, CAPLA’s Interim Executive Director and Board Chair.

“PLAR offers an efficient and cost-effective way of helping learners earn postsecondary credentials and secure meaningful careers. ONCAT applauds CAPLA’s efforts to not only expand access to academic opportunities for learners, but also enhance the dynamism of professional training for practitioners,” said Adrienne Galway, ONCAT’s President and CEO.

*CAPLA is Canada's only not-for-profit practitioner organization committed to the awareness, acceptance, assessment and recognition of all types of learning regardless of where it was acquired.

For more information about CAPLA, visit capla.ca.
For more information about ONCAT, visit oncat.ca.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Andy Brown, Interim Executive Director and Board Chair, CAPLA
Telephone: 514-568-2642
email: abrown@crcmail.net