Accreditation of prior learning, a key challenge for the Alliance

On 2nd February, the Arqus Alliance organised a webinar on the accreditation of prior learning that was dedicated mainly to the presentation of the French existing system called Validation des acquis et de l’expérience (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning – APEL).

The two-part webinar included:

-Presentation of the French national system of APEL given by Nicolas LENNE, in charge of APEL at the Continuing Education and Work-Study Department at the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (Université de Lyon)

-A Q&A session animated by Angélique TRIGAUD, Training Advisor for APEL and Resumption of Studies at the Continuing Education Department of the University Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne (Université de Lyon)

The sharing of good practices and knowledge is highly important, as the APEL system is still being developed in most Arqus member universities. Besides, local and national regulatory systems in place can also represent obstacles for the good implementation of APEL.

Consequently, based on the French national system, Arqus members are already drawing up and will, in the future, implement guidelines on credit recognition and transfer for accredited professional and work experience. This work will be shared with national authorities to point out the existing legal obstacles and indicate recommendations to improve APEL.

This action is developed within Arqus Action Line 2 “Widening Access, Inclusion and Diversity” and AL3 “Student-Centered Frameworks for Quality Learning” and more particularly by the task force AL2.5 “Recognition of Prior Learning” and AL3.8 “Recognition of Non-formal and Informal Learning”.