Abstract:
This paper will compare the practice of Skills Recognition in the post compulsory sectors of New South Wales, Australia; Western Ontario, Canada; and Costa Rica. The presenter is an experienced practitioner in Skills Recognition in the TAFE sector of NSW, having coordinated the assessment of applications based on work and life experience for students of TAFE NSW courses for over 6 years. Annually, TAFE NSW processes up to 122,000 subject exemptions, totalling over 3.3 million student contact hours. This is in addition to the 10 million-student contact hours processed as credit from previous TAFE study. TAFE NSW has also actively pursued credit transfer arrangements with universities, and this aspect of its operation will be compared with the experience of credit transfer in Western Ontario. The paper will also compare methods by which student administration data in each geographical area is collected, stored and maintained, and the interface of the student administration data with the processes of Skills Recognition. The Skills Recognition processes of these two New World countries will be compared with the Developing World experience of Costa Rica, and suggestions for the enhancement of all three systems will be proposed.