Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) helps institutions recognize college-level learning gained outside the classroom, including through work experience, military service, training, and other life experiences. For today’s post-traditional learners, including working adults, parents, and veterans, CPL can be a powerful tool for advancing educational mobility and speeding progress to completion. Yet despite its value, CPL remains underused, often because learners face limited awareness, complicated processes, and difficulty transferring awarded credit.
AACRAO Consulting and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) have partnered to help institutions build stronger, more effective CPL systems. Together, the partnership brings both academic and administrative expertise to the full CPL lifecycle, from assessing readiness and refining policy to evaluating learning, transcripting credit, and applying it toward degree requirements. CAEL supports institutions in developing sound CPL policies and academic review practices, while AACRAO Consulting helps ensure those decisions are backed by clear, workable administrative processes.
A well-designed CPL ecosystem benefits both learners and institutions. CPL can reduce time to degree, lower educational costs, improve completion rates, and serve as a strong recruitment tool for adult learners seeking flexible pathways. Institutions also benefit when learners who receive CPL continue enrolling and progressing toward credentials.
Joint consulting services from AACRAO and CAEL include adult learner readiness assessments and action planning, CPL policy creation and refinement, process mapping workshops to identify operational barriers, and training and mentorship structures to support long-term implementation. By combining AACRAO Consulting’s expertise in enrollment and academic administration with CAEL’s leadership in adult and experiential learning, institutions can create a more transparent, equitable, and learner-centered approach to Credit for Prior Learning.