Decolonising recognition of prior learning – The drawbacks of policy mimicking

Recognition of prior learning features at the top of the policy agenda in many countries because recognition of prior learning (RPL) has proven effective in some parts of the world; and there is much policy learning taking place. Therefore, many countries want to gain the advantages associated with RPL. It brings benefits to individual end-users and countries as a whole. Whether RPL should be identically implemented everywhere is more questionable. This paper proposes a reflexion based on experience: It looks at what RPL is about, at what it took to implement the validation des acquis de l’expérience (VAE) system in France and its potential transferability. While it is important to learn from one another, transporting a system from one national context to another is unlikely to work because the necessary social and cultural context is never transferred along with the technical apparatus. This is not new, but this paper emphasises the need for appropriate adaption whenever systems are borrowed.