- RPL aims to recognise and validate individuals' skills, knowledge, and experience.
- It allows them to receive academic credit or certification for their prior learning.
Image: HANDOUT
Skilled workers without formal education who were set to graduate under the Recognition of Prior Learning programme will have to wait a little longer to graduate.
The graduation ceremony of the first cohort was set to take place on Friday, October 6.
Kenya National Qualifications Authority acting Director General Dr Alice Kande said the new date for the graduation will be announced soon.
“We shall continue to make requisite arrangements as we await the new date. In the meantime, we encourage you to stay updated through our website and social media channels for any updates regarding the rescheduled event and the program itself,” Kande said in a letter to various stakeholders on Wednesday.
The Recognition of Prior Learning policy framework aims to recognise and validate individuals' skills, knowledge, and experience, allowing them to receive academic credit or certification for their prior learning.
“We are committed to the success of this program and the opportunities it provides for citizens of Kenya,” Kande said.
Kande said RPL has policies and guidelines that provide standards of assessing and certifying the skills and competencies acquired through experience.
She said the RPL programme will enable skilled, but uncertified youths to be awarded certificates based on individual competencies expanding their opportunities in employment and advanced learning.
In 2021, during Madaraka Day celebrations in Kisumu county, former President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that the government was keen to give every Kenyan an opportunity to participate in economic development.
He noted that the move was to address the inequity in tendering for contracts by jua kali artisans and craftsmen, due to their lack of certification and to secure opportunities for them.
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER) in their report released in August, recommended the implementation of Recognition of Prior Learning policy and Credit Accumulation and Transfer Systems (CATS) in Kenya.
PWPER said RPL will link TVETs and remove duplications and create centres of excellence based on niche.
Internationally RPL is used as a tool for lifelong learning through provision of access to higher education; Award of credit towards a qualification; Admissions into formal institutions of Learning; advanced standing and credit accumulation and transfer; RPL for credit transfer or harmonisation (national and foreign credits); RPL for recognition of experiential learning; RPL for upgrading of skills or qualifications and regulatory requirements of some sectors in terms of employing qualified persons.