As part of the Association of Community College Trustees’ (ACCT) focus on developing community college workforce strategies, a new policy brief analyzes the impact of prior learning assessments.
The report, “Make It Count: Recognizing Prior Learning for Workforce Development,” focused on older students, working students and veterans, who can all benefit from earning credit through prior learning assessments (PLA). This is an extension of ACCT’s two other reports including “Partnerships for a Future-Ready Workforce” and the “College-Work Balancing Act.”
“We are really trying to help governing boards and community college leaders understand different workforce development strategies and how to improve the experiences for students,” said Allison Beer, senior policy analyst at ACCT. “And hopefully have that translate into public policy that benefits our community colleges.”
According to the brief, 45% of community college students are over the age of 25, 68% of community college students work while enrolled and 5% of community college students are veterans. Additionally, 46% of Americans believe they need additional education to advance in their careers.
Through PLAs, students can earn credits for their experiences inside and outside of the classroom including employer-based training, military experience, skills-focused courses and boot camps.
“It seems like an appropriate strategy to help recognize their experiences, help them get their degrees faster and then support their career goals,” said Beer.
The brief highlighted data from the Council for Adult and Experimental Learning (CAEL) which found on average that adult students who received any amount of PLA credit were two and a half times more likely to complete their degrees than students who did not receive PLA credit.
