George Lombard

ACS has foreshadowed changes to the Recognition of Prior Learning procedure on its website. Anyone currently preparing an RPL application has until 31 January to submit it; after that date there will be an entirely new form and competencies. Most IT professionals will be delighted by the content of the change as for the first time there will be scope for expressing ITIL or human-computer interaction, and no more doubt about where to include business analysts. See http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?acti...illapplication .

I understand that the new procedure will be underpinned by a detailed list of key competencies, however at the moment there is only a list of headings on the ACS website:

KEY AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE

TR.Technology RESOURCES
TR1. Hardware and software fundamentals
TR2. Data and information management
TR3. Networking

TB.Technology Building
TB1. Programming
TB2. Human-computer interaction
TB3 & TB4.System development and acquisition

SM. Services Management
SM1. Service management
SM2. Security management

OM. Outcomes Management
OM1. Organisational and Management Concepts
OM2. Change management

We handle a significant volume of RPL applications and I will be preparing templates to assist our clients over the next couple of weeks.

Strangely, this does not seem to have been developed with the current MODL in mind, except that there is a much more detailed prescription for determining who is an IT security practitioner and who is not.

Cheers,

George Lombard

George Lombard

In response to some enquiries about this, I understand that ACS has had the precise details of the new Key Areas of Knowledge available for uploading to its site but not now clear whether that will take place now or during their break or when they return on 4 January. Important however to note that the changes are not mind-boggling, albeit of some significance for migration agencies such as ours which do this work.

Shouldn't spoil anyone's Christmas cheer, and speaking of which, I hope you all have a good one.

Cheers,

George Lombard

roymoody

Does anyone know what level of detail is required to complete this new form ? ... there are two columns to complete ... "A brief summary of how you have learnt the area of knowledge" and "Evidence of applying the claimed knowledge to a working situation". I will probably be completing 60-70% of the sections with 20 years of experience in IT.. the question is how much detail is the ACS expecting ? Should these be bullet points ? summary information ? detailed information ?

I called the ACS to see what their expectations were and was told "a couple of pages would be sufficient" ... when I questioned this and said I would struggle to even write the Key areas of knowledge titles on a couple of pages I was then told "maybe 4 or 5 pages then" .... I suspect this person either did not understand my question or had not seen the new RPL application form.

Anyone any thoughts ? I'm desperate to get going but don't want to start incorrectly and have to re-write it all !

Thanks

Roy

capetosydney

Definitely more than 4 or 5 pages. Just to give you an idea, my 'old' RPL covered 13 out of 14 areas of knowledge, was 30 pages long and about 12 000 words, but I do know of RPL's covering only 9 ares and 8 000 words, up to all areas of knowledge and 24 000 words, so mine was average in length.
Good luck.

George Lombard

Sounds well OTT, particularly the 13 CBOK areas. Describing how your learning took place really shouldn't need to be that long, but I guess it depends on your own circumstances.

To answer Roy, we're waiting for guidance from ACS about this and have torn up our old models, but given the current fascination with evidence-based assessments I'm not sure that anyone will be writing 30,000 words.

Cheers,

George Lombard

Alienfeet

Hey there I just started the RPL last week.

I've been a Graphic Designer for 16 years and a Web Desginer/Developer for the last 9 of those years but I've also looked after internal IT support, so strictly speaking I'm not a programmer so I must admit I found the KAK a little daunting at first glance.

Once I got stuck in though it became a little clearer and I was rolling. I'm looking at ticking 5 or 6 module boxes out of the 10 so I'm hoping that's enough. (SM) Services Managment and (OM) Outcomes Management isn't really my area so I've left them alone.

Just to give you an idea I've just about finished TR1, TR2, TR3, TB2. Just TB1, TB3 & 4 to do and I've written 4,900 words, about 4 and half pages. Anybody got any ideas if I'm on the right track?

I am unsure about a couple of things though:

• Does it matter if one of my modules crosses over into one of my project reports? TB2 - Human Interaction is a big part of what I do so it occurs in every project I deliver.
• How long roughly should the project reports be, I've read about 1000 words should be OK.
• At the end of the project report (vi References), it says reference is required to substanitiate the experience cited on the report. I'm going to have trouble getting those. I have employer references but my previous MD's didn't really get involed with projects to that level of detail and I'm not in touch with previous colleagues. What should I do?

Be great if anyone could shed some light.

Cheers.

roymoody

Hi Alienfeet

Is there any chance you could send me a copy (or snippet !) to see how you have laid it out ? I tried to send a PM but it wouldn't let me ... can you PM me ?

Thanks

Roy