TVET discusses implementation of alternative learning assessment

Stakeholders in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector have held a workshop in Accra, to discuss the implementation of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy.

 The policy, outdoored by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), together with stakeholders in 2015, is aimed at providing an alternative assessment system for determining a person’s learning outcome.

They explained that the examination-based approach currently used in the educational system was inappropriate and, therefore, suggested the adoption and implementation of the RPL policy.

RPL is a simple process in assessing a person’s skills or knowledge irrespective of where and how they acquired them.

Workshop

The workshop was organised by COTVET and the Ministry of Education.

The stakeholders were made up of educational policy makers, representatives from the National Accreditation Board, National Council for Tertiary Education, National Board for Technician and the Examination Council, Technical Exams Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and technical institutions across the country.

The Coordinator in charge of Policy Planning, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of COTVET, Mr Samuel Thompson, in an interview explained that the workshop was part of processes to put out structures to operationalise the RPL policy.

He said the RPL, when implemented as part of the mainstream educational system, would provide certification for players in the informal TVET sector, bringing about a lot of certified skilled people into the industry.

“The RPL is to give skilled persons in the informal TVET sector, the right leverage to negotiate and be placed appropriately in the industry.The focus is also to recognise their skills, however, the certification is necessary for their placement in the industry,” he said.

Moving forward, he said, they would intensify advocacy for the adoption of the RPL into the mainstream assessment system in the country.

TVET

Delivering a presentation during the workshop, the Coordinator in charge of Assessment and Certification for COTVET, Mr Seth Oku Asamoah, said “using just three hours to grade a person was not the right way to go, adding that RPL would give a learner an opportunity to demonstrate what he or she was capable of doing to meet the industry standards.”

He added that “countries that have advanced in their educational agenda had reformed their assessment system, so there was the need to use RPL as one of the tools to assesss people in the country.”

Mr Asamoah added that they would engage more with technical institutions and trade association industry to accept the RPL , saying: “I believe it is one of the surest way of increasing the competitiveness of the Ghanaian workforce.”