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Why recognition of prior learning works for business

Lights, camera and qualifications for those already working in the film industry. RPL is just one way Technological University Dublin is building life-long learning into its Enterprise Academy business model

Colman Farrell, head of skills and professional development at Screen Ireland; Dr. Mary Ann Bolger, head of discipline, media arts, TU Dublin; Hugh McAtamney, senior engagement manager, creative and cultural sector, TU Dublin Enterprise Academy and Dr. Claire Mc Bride, Convene Project lead and head of TU Dublin Enterprise Academy

Tue Jun 11 2024 - 08:54

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a higher education assessment process that allows enterprises to upskill, boosting everything from competitiveness and productivity to innovation.

It allows employees to come back to education in a way that recognises what they already know, either through work, life experience, or previous training – and gives them credit for it.

Thanks to the RPL process, individuals who may not meet the traditional entry criteria now have the opportunity to access a range of educational courses. It may provide learners an exemption from certain modules of a course, or allow them to enter at an advanced level.

TU Dublin leading the way on RPL

Mc Bride and Farrell both engage with industry to identify and prioritise skills that are critical at a given point in time

Right now, Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) is at the forefront of initiatives to advance University-Enterprise collaboration, including the expansion of access pathways. The RPL initiative is being spearheaded by the Enterprise Academy, a multidisciplinary business unit that is pioneering innovative approaches to talent development for workplace learners.

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The Enterprise Academy works with enterprises of all sizes and sectors to create flexible, scalable and accredited solutions that address industry-wide and enterprise-wide skill needs. This includes addressing pivotal factors driving change, such as innovation, leadership, sustainability initiatives and the digital evolution.

“We actively engage with industry to identify and prioritise skills that are critical at a given point in time,” explains Claire Mc Bride, head of TU Dublin’s Enterprise Academy.

The Academy is supported by the Higher Education Authority’s Human Capital Initiative, which aims to increase the capacity of higher education to meet the skills needs of the future.

It is developing multiple accredited educational solutions of which RPL is one, to boost lifelong learning in the workforce. To this end it is engaging directly with employers of scale, with Skillnet sectoral business networks, and with trade and industry representative bodies.

Its aim is to support multiple access pathways to higher level education for experienced learners across multiple sectors, from pharma, creative and cultural to aviation finance.

Mapping skills to manage progress

Farrell and Bolger discuss the challenge of attracting and retaining talent and how to frame skillsets to help career progress

One of the best ways to create these pathways is to draw upon competency frameworks, against which a person’s workplace learning can be measured, and then mapped against academic credentials.

The Enterprise Academy is currently working with Ireland’s Screen Industry, who published a competency framework in 2022 to do just that.

Since 2019, film productions in Ireland availing of Revenue’s section 481 tax breaks must provide tangible opportunities for skills development through structured, work-based learning on set. TU Dublin is supporting Screen Ireland with this by identifying opportunities to accredit work-based learning, where appropriate.

To create pathways for crew to access further education, the Enterprise Academy is also developing a BA degree in Screen Industry Practice, with the School of Media, to which seasoned screen industry practitioners can apply and, once their competency is fully assessed, gain advanced entry to.

It’s a major step forward for screen industry workers, allowing them to take years of on-the-job experience and validate it with an academic qualification.

With Ireland at full employment, attracting, recruiting and retaining talent is a key concern for businesses. Providing opportunities for staff to upskill can help.

“How to attract and retain talent is a definite challenge for organisations. The question is how universities can streamline the process for companies to not only attract and retain but also to nurture and develop their people, and RPL is a key instrument in the toolbox,” says Mc Bride.

By building relationships with third level institutions, companies can ensure their staff’s prior learning is accredited as part of an academic qualification. For the individual learners involved, such qualifications can academically validate their years of experience, progress careers, provide access to further higher qualifications or even pivot into new ones.

It also allows the individual to have confidence in their skill levels. RPL enables learners to find their rightful place on the National Framework of Qualifications, whether that is a Level 1 certificate or at a more advanced Level.

Learning for life

Mc Bride, McAtamney, and Bolger share the merits of the new BA, which invites applications from those with no formal qualifications right up to diploma level

As head of discipline at TU Dublin’s School of Media, Dr. Mary Ann Bolger is currently immersed in developing the new screen industry practice degree.

The school previously delivered a similar RPL degree in Journalism, which enabled a number of experienced journalists to build their diploma in journalism into a degree, thanks to credit given for prior learning along with critical research and reflection. The new BA aims to be even broader, inviting applications from those with no formal qualifications right up to diploma level.

It was undertaken by more than 50 journalists. Some of whom went on to complete a master’s programme, in subjects as diverse as the Irish language, business, creative digital media, and creative writing.

Some of the journalism RPL degree graduates crossed into academia or public relations, while others moved into leadership roles in their organisation.

“With RPL we are looking at prior, experiential learning. It is an opportunity to bring academia and industry closer together, and for each to play to its strengths,” says Bolger.

Many people currently working in the screen industries are expert at their craft but may not, for a variety of reasons, have had an opportunity to gain a formal qualification, she points out.

TU Dublin’s School of Media has worked closely with Screen Ireland, the state development agency for the Irish film, television and animation industries, for years (and games as of 2023) helping to ensure its training courses meet the industry’s skills needs and accrediting them.

Thanks to the comprehensive competency frameworks that Screen Ireland, working with the Guilds and other stakeholders, have drawn up, TU Dublin has a clear a scaffold against which to assess workplace learning in the sector.

Undertaking such work, with a view to enabling skilled personnel to benefit from RPL, makes sense for any sector, she says. “At TU Dublin we are very keen to place ourselves at the intersection of academia and industry, with the Enterprise Academy a great platform with which to do that.”

Upskilling screen industries

Like many sectors, Ireland’s screen industries need to upskill to remain competitive. “The world is changing quickly and we as an industry need to change and adapt to new technologies such as virtual production, artificial intelligence, new platforms and ways of engaging with content,” explains Colman Farrell, head of skills and professional development at Screen Ireland.

But the production environment is changing in other ways too. “After the Covid boom, we are seeing that streamers want more value for money. It is an ever-changing landscape. For us skills building is not about staying afloat but about moving ahead, both as individuals and as organisations. It’s about keeping the sector competitive.”

It’s a sector which requires creative, financial, business and technological skills. “It’s a complex industry with a lot of moving parts,” adds Farrell.

“Overall, as a society, we are moving away from a model where you go to school or college and then stop, to one of lifelong learning. As a craft-based sector, the screen industries have good experience of on-the-job learning. But RPL is a big part of the solution. It helps people at all stages of their life, and their career, to keep developing their skills. It’s about education and enterprise working together in partnership.”

Find out what doors RPL could open for you at tudublin.ie

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