RPL Tools

RPL stands for ‘Recognition of Prior Learning, and is used to assess students who have enough experience in an industry that they warrant an assessment instead of training. Cloud-based RPL Tools (historically called RPL Kits) are used by RTOs to collect and map evidence from students who are applying for recognition of prior learning.

In the past RPL Kits were paper-based instructions that were sent to a student to help them collect the evidence. They usually had lists of required evidence and maybe some documents that needed to be signed. However, in 2021 RPL ‘Kits’ are out-of-date, and we prefer to use the term ‘RPL Tool’, because it can be done 100% on-line using new digital technology.

What are some key features you should look for in an quality RPL Kit or Tool?

Self-Evaluation

Students need to be able to nominate which units they believe they have competence in. There needs to be enough information provided for each unit for them to do this self-evaluation.

Third Party Report

The Third Party Report is a comprehensive document that allows a current or previous employer or supervisor to verify the practical skills of the student applicant. This is usually a very important part of the RPL process, because the assessor often will not be able to directly observe the applicant performing all the required skills, even during a work site visit.

In addition, the observations conducted by a supervisor show that the applicant has shown competence over a period of time.

A quality Third Party Report needs to have sufficient instructions for the supervisor to use to verify the applicants skills. Simply having the name of the unit is not enough; it needs to explain to the supervisor what is required to be competent in that unit, and it needs to be written using common terminology. Sometimes units use terminology that isn’t used by industry, so the report needs to be contextualised to be understandable.

The Third Party Report also needs to collect the credentials of the person completing the report. There is not much point in a concretor getting his grandmother to provide a Third Party Report, because it is highly unlikely she would  have the industry currency and qualifications to assess his competence.

Knowledge Assessment

In the past assessors would interview the applicant using a set of questions and benchmark answers and write down the responses given. This is very labour intensive, and most assessors don’t do it thoroughly.

The knowledge assessment can be completed on-line as long as there are methods to ensure the authenticity of the answers. Methods such as using recorded web-cam videos or web-cam photographic evidence are good ways to do this. This is direct evidence of the student’s knowledge.

Oftentimes a well designed RPL Tool will cluster topics that appear in each unit. This minimises the amount of repetition that often occurs in units that appear in a qualification. For example, safety legislation may appear as ‘required knowledge’ in almost all units within a qualification. Instead of answering the same questions for each unit, a good RPL Tool will only require this to assessed once.

The knowledge assessment needs to be created and marked by a qualified assessor; usually this person will be able to determine whether the answers are sufficient, or whether further questioning is warranted. The questions also need to be relevant to the units being assessed.

RPL Evidence Matrix

The RPL Evidence Matrix allows the trainer to map a piece of evidence to multiple units or Performance Criteria. For example, a student may supply a copy of a document that could be used as evidence for multiple units. Documents might include a transcript of previous qualifications, or a high risk licence that is relevant for a particular unit.

Challenge Test

On-line Challenge Tests are a very effective way to collect practical evidence and assess a student’s skills. There are many skills which can be replicated on-line, such as research skills, plan reading, and calculations. A well developed Challenge Test will use scenarios to recreate situations a student might face in the work place, providing direct evidence for assessment.

Workplace Portfolio

The Workplace Portfolio is a collection of evidence submitted by the applicant as proof of competence. The assessor needs to be able to confirm that the evidence is authentic; the applicant’s own work.

When documents are submitted the trainer may be able to see whether the applicant’s name appears as an author on the document. If photographic evidence is submitted of a practical task, the assessor might expect to see a series of photos demonstrating the task, or a short video, and evidence that the work was completed by the applicant. Photographic evidence should be date stamped and be assigned an address or location.

Gap Training

The fact is that very few students are 100% competent in every aspect of every unit. Its completely normal for even very experienced workers to require gap training after completing an RPL assessment. The RTO needs to make sure it has the learning materials and training available for the student to complete any required gap training.

What not to do

There are plenty of examples of poor RPL processes being conducted by RTOs.

Examples of poor RPL assessment practices include asking an applicant to provide copies of receipts, or invoices, as ‘evidence’. Unless the unit is about making purchases, a receipt doesn’t prove anything about the student’s competence. An invoice also proves nothing about the student’s skills or abilities; invoices are very easy to forge or fake.

Another example of poor RPL evidence is asking for proof of membership of an association. Again, anyone can buy membership into an organisation without necessarily having the required skills and knowledge to be professional. It proves nothing about their competence.

Another example of poor quality evidence gathering is to rely on online written assessments to assess required knowledge. With the prevelence of A.I., many students are using on-line A.I. apps to find answers to assessment questions. We now recommend using recorded verbal interviews as a way to ensure authenticity of evidence of required knowledge.

The bottom line is that any qualified assessor should be able to look at the evidence and see how it relates to the qualification being assessed. It should be clear to any auditor how the assessor arrived at their judgement of competence.

Edubytes RPL Tools

We recommend that RTOs conduct RPL assessment on a unit-by-unit basis, to cover all required knowledge.

Our on-line RPL Tools reduce the amount of time the assessor needs to spend marking, because there are clear instructions for the student on what is required. On-line RPL tools minimise paper-work, and improve compliance.

We have RPL Tools available for all our qualifications.