By Dr Jako Olivier, Adviser: Higher Education, COL
Learning not only takes place in classrooms but in workplaces and communities, including online and blended learning platforms that connect learners from all over the Commonwealth. For the first time, on the inaugural International Day of Recognition, people around the world are being invited to celebrate the simple but transformative idea that people learn everywhere, and that all forms of learning count.
Launched by the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA), this international day affirms that recognition is central to lifelong learning and social justice. It also calls on educational institutions to look beyond where learning traditionally occurs and to consider, with rigour and respect, what a person knows, is capable of, and can contribute.
For COL, this concept is not new. Since its founding in 1987, COL has held the ever-relevant mandate of establishing and maintaining procedures for the recognition of academic credit. Across the Commonwealth, millions of learners, especially women, displaced people, workers in the informal economy, persons with disabilities and those in remote communities, possess valuable knowledge that is too often invisible to formal systems. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) helps make this learning visible, assessable and usable, opening pathways to further study, decent work opportunities and community advancement. To advance this commitment, COL has been working with government departments and institutions in Kenya, Lesotho and Zambia to support the development of RPL policies.
RPL can be evidenced in various ways, and micro-credentials are emerging as one important avenue for recognising, documenting and sharing prior learning. When designed for purpose, micro-credentials can make learning visible, portable and transparent. COL’s Developing a Commonwealth Credit Transfer Framework: Micro-credentials in a Digital Age project and the Commonwealth Micro-credential Framework for Lifelong Learning are situated within the broader goal of promoting lifelong learning across the Commonwealth. With RPL as a critical aspect, they respond to the need to build an employable workforce whose qualifications are recognised and can support mobility across countries. The Framework acknowledges that micro-credentials may be a way to reflect recognition of prior learning and support stacking towards larger, more formalised qualifications, while the wider project supports the development of national and regional micro-credential frameworks in alignment with existing RPL policies and practices.
In any context, the value of micro-credentials lies in their clarity: a well-designed micro-credential states learning outcomes, level, assessment method, evidence, issuer and quality-assurance process. In digital form, micro-credentials can also carry metadata that allows learners to present credible evidence of skills and knowledge across borders, sectors and stages of life.
RPL through micro-credentials may allow for the holistic and rigorous assessment of different forms of evidence against agreed standards. In this way, micro-credentials can act as structured evidence within an RPL process, helping ensure that learners’ prior knowledge, skills and capabilities are recognised in a more meaningful way. Micro-credentials can also support academic credit transfer across institutional and national borders, entry into programmes and workplace progression, while recognising non-formal and informal learning that conventional transcripts may miss. This is where the Commonwealth Framework plays an important role.
At the same time, micro-credentials should not be considered a shortcut around quality, nor do they necessarily present, on their own, a full picture of a learner’s capabilities. When they are poorly designed or disconnected from recognised standards, they may become fragmented, narrowly focused or isolated in terms of skills. In some contexts, recognition depends largely on institutional discretion, complex documentation and labour-intensive portfolio assessments. Too often, it is the learners in most need of recognition who struggle to navigate opaque processes.
Fortunately, where micro-credentials and RPL intersect, promising models are emerging. Digital badges, for example, can be used to support competence claims with appropriate evidence. In the workplace, capabilities demonstrated over time can be recognised. With assessment-only micro-credentials, experienced learners can have their existing knowledge and skills assessed against standards without having to repeat learning. With careful design that addresses the limitations of these approaches, a more inclusive recognition ecosystem is attainable.
Responsible technology is also important in RPL and micro-credentials. Digital credentials should be used in ways that protect privacy, avoid potential algorithmic bias, remain accessible in low-connectivity environments and never reduce learners to data points. Sustainability is equally important: recognition systems and platforms should be affordable, interoperable and grounded in trust.
As a convenor and catalyst, COL works with Commonwealth governments, institutions and communities to expand access to quality learning and to make learning count. As evidenced by recent micro-credential activities in the Caribbean, Eswatini, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka, micro-credentials offer a highly relevant means of supporting recognition. On this first International Day of Recognition, COL reaffirms its public-good commitment to recognition as a means of ensuring fairness and inclusivity in education systems, where every learner can draw on prior learning to access new opportunities.
