ABSTRACT

This chapter explores in detail the ways in which the assessment and accreditation of prior and current experiential learning (APEL) was being practised in higher education, further education, community and voluntary provision, training organisations and employment, in provision for the unemployed, youth training schemes, and for updating and retraining. It argues that individuals can be encouraged and motivated to learn if they are enabled to develop a due sense of their own capacity to learn. The chapter looks at the background of APEL in Britain, and explores its progression into a day-to-day concern for policy-makers and providers of formal courses and training and development programmes in many sectors. It also considers how APEL can be used alongside other economic and social developments to improve the organisation and the provision of opportunities for learning at the post-secondary stage. The chapter appeals to those with an interest in the history and theory of the assessment and accreditation of experiential learning.