BLOG

With the support of career professionals, students may be able to leverage prior learning to reduce the time and cost for higher education

Susan Forseille

As a fan of Marvel and DC superhero stories, I have noticed superpowers often go unknown for years before a hero discovers their gifts. Once these gifts are known, there is usually a learning process before they can be fully applied. This process often includes naming the superpower, learning how to employ it and practising using it, ending with understanding and appreciating its multiple benefits. This journey is reflected in a little-known career superpower: prior learning recognition.

Many post-secondary institutions (PSIs) recognize that adult learners acquire knowledge and skills through life and work experience. These lived experiences generate learning that can be rich, nuanced and comparable to learning acquired in more formal settings (i.e. colleges and universities). Prior learning recognition by PSIs can significantly reduce both the time and cost to acquire advanced education, while adding to career resiliency and agility. Career professionals can play a key role in helping clients/students learn about and unlock the intricacies of this superpower.

Defining prior learning recognition

Prior learning recognition is best defined as processes that allow individuals to identify, document, have assessed and gain recognition for their learning done outside of a formal classroom. Prior learning can come from work, volunteer experiences, professional development workshops and seminars, self-study, etc. It can result in clients/students obtaining PSI credit and/or advanced entry for the assessment and validation of their informal and non-formal learning.

Informal learning is incidental learning from life experience, workplace-based tasks, volunteer activities and/or self-directed learning and study.

Non-formal learning is intentional, gained through participation in organized workplace-based training, non-credit courses and workshops, but does not generate formal credit.

Knowing about prior learning is a vital first step in leveraging it as a career development tool. However, it can be difficult for clients to find the information they need. Few schools promote it, and there is no name used consistently at a national or even provincial level. Its labels include: PLAR (prior learning assessment and recognition), RPL (recognition of prior learning), PLA (prior learning assessment) and APEL (assessment of prior experiential learning). Some schools refer to prior learning recognition in less transparent ways, such as “challenge for credit” or “with permission of the dean.”

How it works

Once your client/student knows prior learning recognition exists, the next step is to learn which schools offer it and how to access it. Schools offer multiple ways to access prior learning recognition. For example, some institutions use it for advanced entry, some use it for awarding credit and some even give “blocks” of elective credit for program competencies. Advanced entry provides a path for students to enter into a program of study without the pre-requisites and/or with advanced standing. For example, a student may be allowed to skip the first year of a two-year program based on their prior learning.

Receiving credit for prior learning for individual courses is also possible in many schools. This can be done through demonstrating the student has achieved the learning objectives set out in particular courses. Assessment of prior learning can be done through portfolios, interviews, demonstration of skills, challenge exams, etc.

Read more from CareerWise

5 steps to guiding clients through education planning
Colleges and universities re-think how to best serve mature students
Competency assessment can empower immigrant professionals

In some schools – admittedly very few – prior learning recognition can be applied to “blocks” of credits in a particular program. Often called competency-based PLAR, credits for informal and non-formal learning are based on broader program competencies such as communication, problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, and other human skills.

Some schools are connected to pre-assessed training programs offered by employers, private training organizations or continuing studies programs. Students can receive credit for this prior learning with proof of successful completion of this learning.

The most important intricacy embedded in this superpower is that schools have processes for students to work through, ensuring there is confidence and rigour in assessing and validating the prior learning. These processes can involve a lot of time and work to complete. Career practitioners can help clients learn about these options, support them in navigating the options, and offer guidance on identifying and documenting their prior learning.

Benefits of prior learning recognition

On the surface, most clients/students understand the time and money prior learning recognition can save. Yet there are many more benefits to consider. The processes attached to prior learning, especially the reflective elements, can enhance career understanding and management, and this can lead to greater career agility and resiliency.

Students and prior learning practitioners have shared in research (supported by what I have observed in my work) that participating in prior learning recognition processes have helped them better articulate their skills, abilities and knowledge in their resumes, on LinkedIn profiles and during interviews and networking (Keating, 2011; Miller & Miller, 2014). In addition, many PLAR students have commented that reflecting on what they have learned through their lived experiences has greatly affected their future education, career and learning habits. Research has shown that students who complete PLAR tend to graduate at higher rates, with a higher grade point average than non-PLAR students (Leibrandt, S., Klein-Collins, R., & Lane, 2020). Students have also commented that participating in prior learning recognition made their learning more visible; it has enhanced their understanding of how they learn, what they learn and why they learn. Additionally, PLAR can help students translate their informal and non-formal learning into academic language, which improves their confidence as learners and jobseekers.

Unlocking the power of PLAR

Guiding your clients/students in researching prior learning recognition options in post-secondary schools will likely take some effective detective skills, patience and persistence. This is because very few schools have a centralized prior learning office where you can start. Most schools that offer prior learning recognition do so within specific faculties or programs, and even the general recruitment team may not have much information on their school’s offerings.

Strategies to help uncover prior learning options include searching for keywords on school websites. Effective keywords include “prior learning,” “PLAR,” “RPL,” “informal learning” and “advanced entry.” Clients/students can also ask recruiters, admissions officers, program and/or recruitment advisors, chairs and deans directly about prior learning recognition options. Career practitioners may consider advising clients/students to explore the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA) website (capla.ca). This national association offers more insight into prior learning recognition, including a list of provincial contacts.

When you consider how much informal and non-formal learning your clients/students have experienced, combined with the benefits of prior learning recognition by post-secondary institutions, career professionals are in an excellent position to help clients/students unlock this little-known and little-understood superpower.

As the Thompson Rivers University Director of PLAR (Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition), 22 years as a career-educator and an enthusiastic researcher, Susan Forseille has been privileged to research the intersections of career development, prior learning and education.

References

Dyson, C., Keating, J. (2011). Recognition of prior learning. Policy and practice for skills learned at work: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, United States. International Labour Office – Geneva.

Leibrandt, S., Klein-Collins, R., & Lane, P. (2020). Recognizing prior learning in the COVID-19 Era: Helping displaced workers and students one credit at a time. CAEL. Retrieved from cael.org

Miller, R. & Miller S. (2014). Prior learning assessment strategies for workplace learning: translating practice into theory. Prior learning assessment inside out, Volume 2, Number 2.

This flexible tool can help individuals connect to their interests and values

Gabrielle Beaupré and Geneviève Taylor

Maya is an undergraduate student who has just started her second semester in accounting. She is disappointed by her grades so far and has doubts as to whether this is the right career path for her. She wonders whether she will be good enough to eventually acquire the professional title she initially wanted. She worries a lot and often ruminates about past mistakes. Recently, she has been having diffulty sleeping and concentrating and does not see her friends as much as she used to. She lacks the energy to engage in her daily activities, including studying and her part-time job.

Maya’s situation exemplifies the psychological health issues that post-secondary students face today. Indeed, an increasing proportion of students report experiencing stress, anxiety and emotional distress (UEQ, 2019). This is compounded by questions regarding career goals, choice of academic programs and/or different career paths, which are frequent in this population. A recent pan-Canadian study shows that approximately 40% of postsecondary students have difficulties dealing with career-related issues (ACHA, 2019). They also experience anxiety caused by an increasingly unstable and uncertain labour market and by a multitude of opportunities, which can actually induce a feeling of “paralysis” and chronic insatisfaction (Schwartz, 2004). Unfortunately, career guidance professionals in university settings often lack the time or resources to provide adequate support for students (ASEUCC, 2013). Therefore, they need to rely on new approaches to reinforce students’ self-determination and help them to reflect on their future.

Mindfulness as a superpower

Mindfulness-based interventions represent relatively new approaches that could allow students to better manage their career-related issues. Mindfulness is generally defined as a non-judgmental, accepting awareness of our inner and outer experience as it arises in the present moment (Kabat-Zin, 2003). A mindful person tends to be more attentive to his or her sensations, thoughts and emotions as they arise, and does so in an accepting and self-compassionate way. The good news is that mindfulness is like a muscle – it can be developed as a skill through various types of exercices one can practice alone or in a group, with or without guidance. Typical mindfulness practices are:

• Focused attention exercises on different objects such as the breath, bodily sensations or the five senses;
• Focused attention exercises on body movements (e.g. mindful walking, mindful stretching, yoga);
• Meditations that develop compassion for the self and for others.

The impact of mindfulness on well-being

Several scientific studies have established positive links between mindfulness and well-being. First, mindfulness promotes the development of psychological flexibility, an important determinant of mental health, which allows a person to adapt to new situations such as unexpected life changes and difficult circumstances (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). During the COVID-19 pandemic, several researchers have become interested in personal resilience factors. They propose mindfulness as an adaptation tool that may help people be better able to deal with uncertainty (Polizzi, Lynn et Perry, 2020). Mindfulness increases our focus on the present moment, which takes us away from ruminations about the past or anxious anticipation about the future. What’s more, mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to reduce stress and depressive symptoms among university students and career counselling clients (Piot, 2020; Grégoire et al., 2016). Finally, our research group has found that mindfulness could help students who were experiencing a career-related action crisis to better regulate their emotions (Marion-Jetten, Taylor et Schattke, 2020).

“Mindfulness promotes the development of psychological flexibility, an important determinant of mental health, which allows a person to adapt to new situations such as unexpected life changes and difficult circumstances.”

Mindfulness as a career-related superpower

Beyond the benefits of mindfulness for well-being and emotion regulation, how else can it act as a career-related superpower?

Better self-knowledge

First, mindfulness could help a person to better distinguish between his or her deeply held values and interests and those that originate only in societal or parental expectations (Schattke, Taylor, & Marion-Jetten, 2020; Strick et Papies, 2017). There are many ways to increase one’s self-knowledge – mindfulness stands out as a flexible tool to do so. It promotes the ability to pay attention to all aspects of one’s experience, while accepting everything that comes up instead of avoiding it (Carlson, 2013).

For example, by practising body awareness, Maya could realize that she often feels tension in her shoulders when she thinks about taking the accreditation exams to become a chartered accountant. She could also realize that she has a lot of negative thoughts during these times and observe them to see what they could tell her. At the same time, she could notice that she feels light and open when she give oral presentations. This information can become very useful when thinking about which work contexts would better fit her needs and her working style as a future accountant.

Read more from CareerWise

Integrating ‘career rewirement’ strategies into your practice
Sustaining engagement in the midst of a pandemic
Responding to career uncertainty with compassion and intentionality

Setting self-concordant career goals

Second, mindfulness could help a person to set career goals that are based on their deeply held values and true interests. Referred to as self-concordant, these goals are based on self-determined motivation and are essential for well-being (Deci, Ryan, Schultz et Niemiec, 2015). In fact, a series of longitudinal studies has shown that choosing an academic program that is related to one’s true interests and values can increase academic performance and decrease psychological distress and school dropout (Taylor et al., 2014).

By practising mindfulness, Maya could realize that she is often concerned with what others would say if she dropped out of her current program and did not become an accountant. She could then observe, without judgment, that her motivation for this career goal was perhaps not as self-determined as she thought. As previously mentioned, Maya could also become more aware of her own values and of what truly interests her. This could help her to zone in on her next career goal, and eventually help her to set and get engaged in a more self-concordant goal.

Developing creativity

Finally, mindfulness can increase different types of creativity, which would allow a person to think of or even create new opportunities for themselves and find innovative solutions when confronted with career-related obstacles. Research on this topic has shown that people can solve problems more easily when they have practiced mindfulness meditation right before (Colzato et al., 2014; Ding et al., 2015). Mindfulness could thus help Maya find “out of the box” opportunities to resolve her career-related issues.

Helping university students with mindfulness

How can career development professionals help students cultivate mindfulness? They can encourage them and guide them to observe their everyday experiences as they arise (i.e. recurring thoughts, bodily sensations, emotions), and accept them in a kind and non-judgmental way. University students could capitalize on the development of mindfulness as a skill – especially since it is an accessible practice that can be easily adjusted to fit into an already busy schedule. More than ever, career decision-making is a lifelong process, and not a stage that is fixed in time. Mindfulness could enrich this process, constantly evolving as the student enters and interacts with the labour market.

In our opinion, mindfulness represents an additional yet important career-related superpower; a tool that can help a person regulate negative emotions that often accompany career issues. Mindfulness also helps people to get to know themselves better by fostering access to their true interests and values, recurring thought patterns, emotions and bodily sensations. Therefore, a more mindful student could make more self-congruent choices and better adjust to career-related obstacles, even after graduation.

Gabrielle Beaupré, MA, is a doctoral student in education at UQAM and a practising career guidance counsellor. Her research interests focus on mindfulness, motivation for career goals and well-being amongst university students. Her doctoral project is financed by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec Société et Culture.

Geneviève Taylor, PhD, is a professor in career counselling in the Department of Education and Pedagogy at Université du Québec à Montréal, and a researcher in the Groupe de recherche et d’intervention sur la présence attentive (GRIPA). Her research focuses on the role of mindfulness self-compassion in career-related goal pursuit and motivational processes.

References

American College Health Association. (2019). American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II: Canadian Reference Group. Hanover : American College Health Association.

Association des services étudiants des universités et collèges du Canada (ASEUCC). (2013). Post-Secondary Student Mental Health: Guide to a Systemic Approach.

Carlson, E. N. (2013). Overcoming the Barriers to Self-Knowledge : Mindfulness as a Path to Seeing Yourself as You Really Are. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(2), 173‑186.

Colzato, L.S., Szapora, A., Lippelt, D. et Hommel, B. (2014). Prior meditation practice modulates performance and strategy use in convergent- and divergent-thinking problem. Mindfulness. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12671-014-0352-9 (online publication ahead of print).

Deci, E. L., Ryan, R. M., Schultz, P. P. et Niemiec, C. P. (2015). Being aware and functioning fully. Handbook of mindfulness: Theory, research, and practice, 112-129.

Ding, X., Tang, Y., Deng, Y., Tang, R., et Posner, M.I. (2015). Mood and personality predict improvement in creativity due to meditation training. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 217–221.

Grégoire, S., Lachance, L. et Richer, L. (2016). La présence attentive, mindfulness. État des connaissances empiriques et pratiques. Montréal : Presses de l’Université du Québec.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context : Past, present, and future. Clinical psychology: Science and practice, 10(2), 144–156.

Kashdan, T. B. et Rottenberg, J. (2010). Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 865-878.

Lebuda, I., Zabelina, D. L., & Karwowski, M. (2016). Mind full of ideas: A meta-analysis of the mindfulness–creativity link. Personality and Individual Differences, 93, 22-26.

Piot, F. (2020). Projet Oreka : essai randomisé contrôlé destiné à évaluer l’impact d’ateliers issus de l’approche d’acceptation et d’engagement sur la souplesse psychologique, le bien-être psychologique et l’espoir chez des individus confrontés à une impasse professionnelle [The Oreka Project : Randomised controlled trial to evaluate the impact of workshops based on Acceptance-Commitment Therapy on psychological flexibility, psychological well-being, and hope among people experiencing a professional impasse]. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Université du Québec à Montréal.

Polizzi, C., Lynn, S. J., & Perry, A. (2020). Stress and Coping in the Time of COVID-19: Pathways to Resilience and Recovery. Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 17(2).

Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice : Why more is less (Vol. xi). HarperCollins Publishers.

Strick, M. et Papies, E. K. (2017). A Brief Mindfulness Exercise Promotes the Correspondence Between the Implicit Affiliation Motive and Goal Setting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(5), 623‑637.

Taylor, G., Jungert, T., Mageau, G. A., Schattke, K., Dedic, H., Rosenfield, S. et Koestner, R. (2014). A self-determination theory approach to predicting school achievement over time : The unique role of intrinsic motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39(4), 342‑358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.08.002

Union étudiante du Québec. (2019). Enquête « sous ta façade » : enquête panquébécoise sur la santé psychologique étudiante.