ACHIEVING OUR POTENTIAL: AN ACTION PLAN FOR PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT AND RECOGNITION (PLAR) IN CANADA BY: MARY MORRISSEY, DOUGLAS MYERS, PAUL BÉLANGER, MAGALI ROBITAILLE, PHIL DAVISON, JOY VAN KLEEF, RICK WILLIAMS PLA CENTRE, HALIFAX 2008 ACHIEVING OUR POTENTIAL: AN ACTION PLAN FOR PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT AND RECOGNITION (PLAR) IN CANADA The report Achieving our Potential: An Action Plan for Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) in Canada was produced by the PLA Centre with a core team of researchers and writers: Mary Morrissey (Co-Director and Principal Author) Douglas Myers (Co-Director and Author) Core team: Paul Bélanger and Magali Robitaille, Centre de recherche et de développement sur l’éducation permanente (CIRDEP), Université du Québec à Montréal Phil Davison, The Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University Joy Van Kleef, Canadian Institute for Recognizing Learning Rick Williams, Praxis Research and Consulting This work was funded by a contribution from the Canadian Council on Learning. However, the opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors. The Canadian Council on Learning bears no responsibility for its content. The Executive Summary is available in French. The full report is available in English only. It can be obtained through the PLA Centre website (www.placentre.ns.ca) and the Canadian Council on Learning website (www.ccl-cca.ca). For additional information please contact: Nancy Anningson, [email protected] Copyright 2008 PLA Centre All rights reserved. This publication can be reproduced in whole or in part with the written permission of the PLA Centre. To gain this permission please contact [email protected]. These materials are to be used solely for non-commercial purposes. Cite this publication in the following format: Achieving Our Potential: An Action Plan for Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) in Canada, PLA Centre, Halifax, 2008. Published in October 2008 Halifax, Nova Scotia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank Paul Cappon, President and CEO of the Canadian Council on Learning, for his confidence in asking the PLA Centre to undertake this daunting task, and his senior colleagues, Douglas Hodgkinson, John Biss and Robert Patry, for their generous and encouraging support and advice throughout this adventure. We were fortunate to be able to assemble an indefatigable, knowledgeable and talented core team that included Rick Williams of Praxis Research and Consulting; Joy Van Kleef of the Canadian Institute for Recognizing Learning; and Phil Davison, a PLA Centre Associate. Each team member contributed generously to overall project planning and analysis as well as to his or her particular area of work. Rick Williams authored the chapter on Socio-Economic Trends and Education Challenges, providing a comprehensive analysis of the demographic and labour supply challenges affecting the demand for PLAR in Canada. Rick also provided invaluable leadership in developing the Canadian and international content for Situational Analysis: Development of PLAR Policies, Programs and Practices, supplementing his research with data supplied by Joy Van Kleef. Joy Van Kleef is the author of two instrumental background documents: Recognition of Prior Learning Activities in Canada (12 Jurisdictions) (Appendix A), and Eight International Case Studies in Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (Appendix C). These documents are fundamental components of the overall report and integral to the success of the project. We were also fortunate to have the assistance of Dianne Conrad (Athabasca University) who developed the initial research for the New Zealand Report. Phil Davison gave able advice and assistance — most particularly by providing background research and formulating the sensitive and accurate descriptions of adults in transition that constitute the 10 learner profiles in The Demand for PLAR chapter. iii Paul Bélanger and Magali Robitaille, from the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherché/ développement sur l’éducation permanente (CIRDEP) at the University of Quebec at Montreal, provided us with an important and separate report on the status of PLAR in Quebec Development of Policies and Practices Related to the Recognition of Prior Knowledge and Skills in Quebec (Appendix B). We are also grateful to the Board of Directors1 and to our colleagues at the PLA Centre, Bernadette Mrazek, Teresa Francis, Nancy Anningson and Janet Johnson, whose energy, commitment and patience kept the PLA Centre’s many other development and program initiatives underway while we transformed a corner of the premises into a mini PLAR “think tank.” The project team had a number of invaluable opportunities to consult with colleagues in the field as a group — in Canada and internationally — and to seek feedback and advice as ideas developed. For example, in mid-September 2007, two team members attended a a EuroguideVal conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, to learn about current European developments in the field of Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL).2 In Canada, a series of four events allowed us to test and revise our assumptions, findings and progress. The first was the 18th annual spring PLA Conference, hosted by the First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI) in May 2007, where we outlined our initial assumptions and objectives. The second was at a plenary session at the November 2007 Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA) Fall Focus Workshop in Toronto, where we presented Frameworks for the Recognition of Prior and Portfolio Learning: Works in Progress3 — a further development of our ideas and hunches. We are especially grateful to Diane Hill and Paul Zakos of FNTI, and to Bonnie Kennedy and the CAPLA Board for their interest and encouragement. In February 2008, with the support of the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL), project members organized a consultation in Ottawa on the theme “Shifting the Discourse: Mobilizing Adult Learning in Canada.”4 With provocative opening commentaries from Paul Cappon and the Conference Board of Canada’s Michael Bloom,5 this event brought together prior learning and public policy experts from across the country and iv internationally to discuss and comment upon the field in general, and the progress of the project in particular. The ensuing discussion — ably facilitated by Rick Williams and Lynne Toupin of the Human Resources Council of the Voluntary/Non-Profit Sector — provided invaluable comments, critiques and suggestions that confirmed and elaborated a number of our basic directions and led to some important revisions and recasting of our argument and focus. We also appreciate the professional services of Alexia McGill of Agenda Managers in Halifax for the logistical arrangements of this event. Finally, 10 days later the project had a further opportunity to present a revised version of its approach at a one-day session titled “Recognizing Adult and Experiential Learning: Mapping the Field in Canada.” This event, hosted by the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) in Abbotsford, B.C., was organized by Wendy Watson of UFV, and Christine Wihak of Thompson Rivers University. Again, the responses and comments of the participants were extremely helpful in clarifying and shaping our work.6 In addition, despite many set backs and obstacles, we have been able to draw on the rich and varied expertise of the people who have kept PLAR alive and moving forward in Canada over the past thirty years, such as the PLAR practitioners and advocates who have worked on the ground with and on behalf of a broad diversity of adult learners in transition across a broad range of settings. Included in that host — as well as a number of public policy and adult learning experts — are the following individuals from across Canada and beyond to whom we are especially grateful for their suggestions and support: Diana Bamford-Rees (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, U.S.A.), Deb Blower (Red River College, Manitoba), John Bryden (University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland), Lenore Burton (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa), Margaret Cameron (Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework, Scotland), John Daniel (Commonwealth of Learning, British Columbia), Leona Daniels (Industry Training and Partnerships, Manitoba), Justus de Hooge (Ministry of Learning and Work, the Netherlands), John Hugh Edwards (Canadian Labour Congress, Ottawa), Karen Evans (University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia), Kathleen Flanagan (Adult Learning Knowledge Centre, New Brunswick), Guy Fortier (Centre collégial montréalais de reconnaissance des acquis et v des compétences, Québec), Brigid Hayes (Consultant, Ontario), Teresa Hemar (Centre interinstitutionnel de Bilan de Compétences Artois-Ternois, France), Diane Hill (FNTI), Sandi Howell (Competitiveness, Training and Trade, Manitoba), Ray Ivany (Consultant, Nova Scotia), Mary Kenny (Residential Construction Industry Training Organization, British Columbia), John Konrad (Consultant, U.K., EuroguideVAL Project), David Livingstone (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Ontario), Robin Millar (Centre for Education and Work, Manitoba), David Mac Donald (Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Ottawa), Katharine Mott (PLA Centre Associate, Nova Scotia), Mike Osborne (University of Stirling, Scotland), Ralph Paufler (Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, Alberta), Susan Simosko (Consultant, British Columbia), Derwyn Sangster (Work and Learning Knowledge