Publications
Achieving Our Potential: An Action Plan for PLAR in Canada
The Prior Learning Centre completed this pan-Canadian study on PLAR in 2007. This work was sponsored by the Canadian Council on Learning.
To obtain the full report, please contact the Prior Learning Centre.
The Learning Province, Building on Our Strengths
(March 8-9, 2010, Halifax)
In March 2010, funded by the Canadian Council on Learning, the Prior Learning Centre worked with the Department of Labour and Workforce Development (now known as the Department of Labour and Advance Education) and the Office of Policies and Priorities in organizing and facilitating a cross-departmental dialogue on Nova Scotia’s core social and economic priorities. This included a focus on vision—of lifelong and life-wide learning—and lessons from international examples—such as the European Union initiatives toward the broad inclusion of citizens in high quality education, and workforce, career and personal development.
The AHBRSC Project: Toward a Solution
In 2010, the Atlantic Home Building & Renovation Sector Council (AHBRSC) secured funding from the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education to address two specific recommendations of the 2008 Nova Scotia Residential Construction Labour Supply Report:
- “the AHBRSC should place the highest priority on knowing more about the training needs and certification potential of the thousands of career workers in the industry who are not qualified journeypersons in their trades”; and [1]
- The Report recommends “The development and implementation of a PLAR program to certify as many workers in the industry as possible, in as short a time as possible, to expand the numbers of qualified apprenticeship mentors in the industry”. [2]
As a result the AHBRSC approached the Prior Learning Centre (PLC) to devise a PLAR Process Model to provide AHBRSC with a framework for assessing the skills and learning of experienced, non-certified carpenters. Specifically, this report would:
- Analyze current research and identify exemplary practices.
- Clarify the required components of a quality-assured PLAR model and the process for achieving such.
- Suggest next steps in moving forward in implementing such a process.
AHBRSC worked with the Associations of Workplace Educators of Nova Scotia (AWENS) to conduct the Training Needs Assessment. The two studies were to be undertaken simultaneously – in parallel and along complementary lines. This report (PLC) focuses on the development of the PLAR model, the AWENS study is issued separately as the Report on the Training and Certification Needs Assessment in the Carpentry Trade in Nova Scotia (March 2011).
[1] DMD Economics, Canmac Economics, and PRAXIS Research & Consulting Inc., Nova Scotia Residential Construction Labour Supply Study (Halifax: Atlantic Home Building & Renovation Sector Council, 2008), p. 88.
[2] Ibid., p. 92.
“I might be Overqualified”: Personal Perspectives and National Survey Findings on Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition in Canada
D.W. Livingstone (Head, Centre for Study of Education and Work, OISE/U. of Toronto) and Douglas Myers (Executive Director, Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia).
This paper is based on the views and experience of over 15,000 Canadian adults. Two thirds of these have been surveyed in two national studies carried out by The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW), at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Building Community Learning Capacity: Utilizing Community Learning Assets
A paper presented to the International Rural Network Conference Taking Charge, Inverness, Scotland, June 2003 by Douglas Myers, Executive Director, The Prior Learning Assessment Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Impact Evaluation of the PLA Centre Learning Portfolio Programs
The PLA Centre has been offering its learning portfolio program to a large and diverse population of clients since 1996. It has also trained and certified practitioners who now deliver the program to an even wider range of individuals.
This report presents the findings from the first comprehensive evaluation of the Centre’s activities since its inception in 1996.
Évaluation des incidences du programme d’apprentissage portfolio du PLA Centre
Depuis 1996, le PLA Centre (Centre pour la reconnaissance des acquis; ci-après le Centre) offre son programme d’apprentissage Portfolio à une clientèle variée et nombreuse. Il a aussi formé et agréé des spécialistes qui proposent maintenant le programme à un éventail encore plus large de personnes.
Le présent rapport est un exposé des conclusions de l’évaluation du programme d’apprentissage Portfolio du Centre.
