Portfolio assessment

This document outlines a project exploring the use of a specific Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) strategy, the development of a portfolio, to help individuals with acquired disabilities address workforce reintegration issues.

The premise of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) is that what a person knows and can do is more important than where or how he learned those things.

This facilitator’s guide is part of the Portfolio for Youth Development Kit, designed to help young people make the connection between both formal and experiential learning, and the Essential Skills required in a variety of occupations.

The kit is based on four underlying concepts: identifying multiple intelligences; identifying learning styles; examining occupations; and identifying occupational Essential Skills.

Igniting the Power Within (ITPW) is a series of certification workshops on Essential Skills (ES) and Recognizing Prior Learning (RPL), developed specifically for Aboriginal communities.

In 2004, a group of First Nation, Métis, and non-Aboriginal practitioners met to discuss how the nine Essentials Skills (ES) and Recognizing Prior Learning (RPL) should be introduced and taught to Aboriginal communities in Manitoba. This meeting eventually resulted in the development of a four-level certification program called Igniting the Power Within (ITPW).

The author notes that the practice of using portfolios for second-language teaching has increased in popularity while, almost simultaneously, there has been a rise in the use of similar frameworks in the field of literacy. However, there is little collaboration between practitioners in each of the two fields.

Open and distance educational institutions share a commitment to principles of access and flexibility which, in turn, reflect a set of foundational beliefs that shape learning activity. Housed within this broad mandate is an explicit recognition of the presence and value of mature learners’ prior learning.

While the recognition of prior learning at post-secondary institutions in Canada is not widely practiced, it constitutes a solid plank in Athabasca University's mission as an open and distance institution. Although both challenge-for-credit and portfolio assessment strategies are used at AU, learners are best able to control their destinies and celebrate their diversities by engaging in the reflexive portfolio processes.

Practitioners at Athabasca University have observed gaps between learners' romanticized views of past events and thepedagogical or cognitive contribution of those events to learning. The need to acknowledge and close these

The PLAR: Workers in Transition project was a three year, Canada-wide study conducted by the Centre for Education and Work (CEW) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The study measured the longterm effects of prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) strategies as labour market tools to assist workers-in-transition.