Jess’ E-Learning Blog

I’ve been thinking about organising my Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) for my Cert IV in training and assessment, and I’m encountering a few problems which are starting to convince me that I really shouldn’t bother trying to do this… or at least not this way.

Firstly, while it may not appear to be huge, with only about a half dozen competencies, the TAA04 has a whole bunch of elements and performance criteria inside those competencies. So, if I manage to find enough evidence to support that I have actually learned all of the content, my final product won’t be big; it will be enormous. 

Which leads to the next problem; an easy way to store all of this, without losing paperwork, is to have it all stored digitally. So I made a wiki and devoted a page to each competency, where I can put copies of all the assignments, letters and other proof I need to prove RPL. But then I realised that putting three years of my schooling on the net could become a big security problem as I’m not really comfortable with people just accessing and using my hard work however they want. Plus, the final product would still be enormous, only intangibly enormous. 

Then, another problem I’ve encountered occurred when I saw the bits and pieces of what I need get to prove RPL. Start with letters from so and so, add specific assignments and then combine with specifically altered assignments. Toss the whole thing in a bowl and garnish with work experience (which I don’t have) and you’re ready to go: provided you pay the required fee when you submit your portfolio of RPL. I haven’t learnt half the elements listed, and I need to go through a lot of beaureacratic red tape to provide evidence of the rest.

And, to top it all off, the certification is only valid for five or so years, after which you have to go through the whole process again…

I don’t think it’s worth going to that much hassle to get the RPL. I do value the certification, but this amount of work is going to interfere with the rest of my university work. I think that I might just go to TAFE after uni, enrol in the TAA04 and apply for exemptions in subjects which I’ve already done.