This article was written by Luke Imbong. Luke is a writer for child care training provider Inspire Education. Ask him a question at
Inspire Education
RPL stands for Recognition of Prior Learning. It is a process of recognising the skills and knowledge you already have so you don't have to demonstrate them again during your early childhood education qualification course.
In other words, RPL can help you reduce your study load and gain your qualification sooner.
As a result, "Can I get RPL for my early childhood education course?" is one of the most common questions we hear. If you're looking to start a career in child care (or advance your current one) with Certificate III or Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care training, then it would be beneficial for you to know about RPL too.
So can you get RPL for the Cert III and Diploma Early Childhood qualifications?
The short answer is yes, but only if you can provide sufficient evidence of relevant training and/or relevant and recent work experience. This means that you’ll likely need to reach out to your current or previous employers and trainers to get the evidence you need.
Examples of evidence you can submit include:
- Child development records, forms and documents that you created or helped create.
- Reflective journals and task log books of your responsibilities in a child care facility.
- References from your employer, supervisor or clients.
- Copies of your certificates, diplomas or other qualifications.
- Statements of attainment for training that you attended.
The evidence you provide will then be checked by RPL Assessors. These experts will assess if your experience and qualifications can be recognised as equivalent to the units of competency in the course.
RPL Pathways
The two most common pathways to gaining RPL are Workplace Evidence and Direct Credit.
Workplace Evidence Pathway to RPL
If you’ve previously had a job with similar responsibilities to the learning outcomes of a course unit, you can apply for RPL for that unit.
For example, the unit C HCECE005 – Provide Care for Babies and Toddlers is in both the Certificate III and Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care. If you’ve already spent a lot of time working with babies and toddlers, you may apply for RPL for this unit.
You can use evidence such as weekly task records that show your assigned duties or get a report from your supervisor outlining your responsibilities and stating you were able to provide adequate care for babies and toddlers to support your RPL claim.
Direct Credit Pathway to RPL
If you’ve completed vocational training courses in the past, you may already hold some of the units required for these courses.
For example, the unit H LTHIR403C Work Effectively with Culturally Diverse Clients and CoWorkers is in many different vocational courses. If you hold other qualifications which include HLTHIR403C, simply provide a statement of attainment or a copy of your qualification so we can verify it and give you direct credit for your previous training.
Can I use the experience of raising my own kids for RPL?
Unfortunately, being a parent is not enough on its own for you to gain RPL. This is because early childhood education courses teaches skills in the context of child care services in Australia. You may still be lacking the required knowledge about the framework behind this highly regulated industry even if you’ve raised kids yourself.
The good news is, being a parent is a valuable source for insight into the needs of children. Your parenting experience isn’t likely to have a direct match for the course units, but it will still be useful when it comes to caring for children.
Summary
RPL is a great tool to gain your qualification in early childhood education, but it is only granted if you are able to provide sufficient evidence of the right skills and knowledge required for the qualification.
If you have relevant work experience or qualifications with similar units, simply gather evidence for them to apply for recognition. RPL Assessors will then determine if any of the units can be credited to you.
If you need help with providing evidence to gain recognition, simply contact a child care training provider and ask them about RPL.
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