An important change to our Accreditation of Prior Learning policy

Here at TQUK, we aim to keep you up to date with all of our latest news. That's why we're letting you know that we've made an important change to our Accreditation of Prior Learning policy.

Accredited Prior Learning (APL) allows a earner to demonstrate through their previous certificated achievements that they have already met the requirements of a unit and so do not need to be assessed against those units agreed as having already been achieved.

Accredited Prior Learning (APL) is possible in three circumstances:

• Learners who have previously achieved the same unit within another qualification are eligible for credit transfer.

• Learners who have a certificated achievement within the RQF/QCF can claim that completed units are of the equivalent value in content and demand to the units they wish to achieve and so are eligible for equivalence.

• Learners who have a certificated achievement outside of the RQF/QCF can claim an exemption from the requirements to achieve credits for designated units on the basis that they are of equal or higher value. This is only possible where specifically noted in the specification of a qualification, which will name the achievements eligible to be used as the basis of the exemption.

Following a review of our APL process, we've decided to update the policy to add a new process that allows Centres to request the addition of an exemption to a qualification specification.

The new Accreditation of Prior Learning policy can be accessed here.

If certificated achievement outside of the RQF/QCF is not listed on the specification, but a Centre believes it would meet the requirements, they can request prior accredited work to be added to a qualification specification. Notifications on the outcome of a decision to add an exemption for a unit to a qualification will be given within 10 working days of receiving the form from the Recognised Centre. We've also added scope for adding an APL exemption to a qualification where prior completed work is in a language other than English.

Any Centre wishing to utilise this process should do so by completing this form and submitting it at qualifications@tquk.org. The submission form for this process will be accessible through your TQUK Management Suite dashboard as well.

If an exemption addition is approved for a qualification, the Centre can then proceed with the normal APL process, claiming an exemption for the newly approved exemption against the relevant units.

Finally, we've provided some further clarity regarding the language of work used in the recognition of prior learning. It is expected that all work assessed using RPL to be in the same language as the qualification it is being used for is assessed in.If you have any queries, please contact us.