Recognition of prior learning, or RPL, is an assessment pathway for people who already have relevant skills and knowledge. A kit helps your RTO explain what a candidate needs to provide and gives the assessor a consistent way to record a decision. Start with the unit or qualification code and the work the candidate has actually performed.
How does RPL work?
A candidate starts by describing their experience and identifying evidence. An assessor reviews that evidence against the relevant requirements and may ask for clarification, a conversation or a practical demonstration. A job title on a résumé can help explain a candidate's background. Ask what the candidate personally did, how recently they did it and what they can show the assessor.
An experienced employee might bring a completed work record and explain their part in producing it. If some details are confidential, the assessor and candidate can discuss another way to demonstrate the same work. An independent person who observed the work can provide supporting information. The assessor brings these sources together, records their decision and identifies any gaps that still need evidence.
What comes in the kit?
CAQA Resources listings describe an application form and information booklet, a self assessment, a competency conversation and a demonstration and observation kit. They also describe a third party kit for someone familiar with the candidate's work. Check the specific product to see how the materials are organised for the units on your delivery plan.
Ask to see both sides of one evidence request. Start with the candidate instructions, then follow them into the assessor guidance. If a candidate must explain how they carried out a process, look for prompts that let the assessor probe the explanation. Review the space available to document what the assessor heard, which other evidence they reviewed and how they reached the decision.
Can an RTO use an RPL template?
A template gives your staff a starting structure. To review it, choose a unit your team already assesses and trace a sample application through to the recorded outcome. An assessor should be able to find the parts of the kit that address each requirement and see where to record gaps. Try the process with a straightforward application and a case where the initial evidence tells only part of the story.
Check the candidate instructions for words that are unfamiliar in your industry. A workplace portfolio might mean photographs and job records in one program and a set of completed reports in another. Give candidates examples that make sense in the context of their work and show them how to identify their individual contribution.
Adapt the documents for your process
Add your contact details, submission channels and local instructions for handling employer documents. Decide how your team will record the identity and role of a third party and where the assessor will keep the notes from a conversation. Keep a version record so an assessor can tell which materials were used for each application.
Run a short review with the person who receives applications and the person who makes the assessment decision. Give them a practice file and ask them to identify what goes back to the candidate. If the file moves between teams, confirm who tracks outstanding evidence and how an assessor can reconstruct the decision later. Ask for a sample RPL Kit for your code so the assessor can review an evidence request and its mapping.
Browse RPL Kits for your course or unit code.
CAQA Resources materials are written by subject matter experts and are compliant and audit ready. You can customise, rebrand and reproduce the supplied Word or Office materials within your RTO. Your licence covers unlimited students within your RTO. This resource comes with CAQA's Quality Assurance Guarantee: if it gives an adverse audit outcome, we fix it free of cost, and all future updates are free until the training product becomes superseded and equivalent.
