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Recognizing the college-level learning of adults leads to success
Adults who have never earned a single college credit likely have a wealth of skills, competencies, and learning that may be worth college credit. This learning can come from various sources: on-the-job training, work experience, military training, hobbies, self-directed and open source courseware study, and community service. Through Prior Learning Assessment (PLA), students can have skills, competencies, and learning evaluated for possible college credit. Research shows that PLA students earn degrees and credentials in less time, with better success, and at a much lower cost to themselves and to taxpayers.
Make the most of your training dollars
At a time when the workforce system is struggling with declining budgets, it makes sense to save your Individual Training Account dollars by ensuring that adult workers are not taking training or college courses to re-learn what they already know. Adults with long work histories already have skills, knowledge, and learning that may be worth college credit and that can shorten their time to degree completion. That’s where LearningCounts.org can help.
What can the workforce system do to accelerate degree completion of workers?
There are a number of ways to support the use of PLA to accelerate the success of adult learners and workers, including:
- Designate PLA as an allowable use for Workforce Investment Act dollars, including Individual Training Accounts.
- Advocate the use of federal and state financial aid dollars to pay for PLA.