The People Pillar: Investing in and Cultivating High Performing RPL Teams
Susan Simosko’s foundational text, Assessment of Prior Learning: A Practical Guide for Professionals (1991), established the benchmark for candidate-centred, quality-assured skills recognition. The text articulates the essential architecture of a defensible RPL ecosystem, grounded in adult learning principles (andragogy), an iterative six-stage candidate journey, the rigorous separation of advising and assessing roles, and the non-negotiable pillars of valid evidence. Simosko demonstrates that genuine recognition is never a passive "paper chase" or transactional shortcut but an empowering developmental process designed to make informal and experiential capability visible against explicit standards of competence.
More than three decades on, this framework remains an urgent diagnostic tool for contemporary tertiary systems and enterprise workforces. As modern TVET grapples with risk-averse compliance, the over-reliance on rigid documentary kits, and emerging capability gaps across assessment teams, Simosko’s blueprint provides the operational antidote: Total Quality Management (TQM) principles, robust formative guidance, and sustained investment in assessor capability and mentoring. For policy architects, RTO executives, and practitioners navigating current workforce reforms, this synthesis delivers a clear roadmap to move beyond tick-and-flick audits toward a resilient, trusted recognition service.
