ABSTRACT
It is widely recognised that formal or classroom based learning makes up only a tiny fraction of our total learning. The Assessment of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) is an approach to assessment and accreditation, which formally recognises that much of our learning, is unrecognised, unacknowledged, unpresented and unaccredited. Even before lifelong learning came onto the national policy agenda, APEL was already being used to enable mature learners to return to learning by recognising learning gained through social experiences and work, and had also been written into new programmes of national vocational qualifications launched in the late 80s and early 90s. Early initiatives encouraged formative processes but also stressed the need to focus on the learning gained from an experience, not on the experience itself. This chapter explores the relationship between the learning experience and how that influences the recognition of the learning outcomes.
The accreditation of prior learning will have an important role in the future, as more adults participate in education and training. APL is particularly relevant to people returning to work or changing careers.
(Gilbert Jessup, 1991)Experience: the accumulation of knowledge and skill through personal participation in events. Men mink mat experience described by men is more 144valuable, yet it is often not even in a language derived from their experience ... it is removed from experience altogether by being cast in abstract and theoretical terms ... we need ... a language of experience and this must necessarily come from our explanation of the personal, the everyday, and what we experience.
(A Feminist Dictionary - Chens Kramarae and Paula A. Treichler)