A National Push to Put Experience on the Record

By Autumn Walden, Editor, AACRAO Connect, Content Strategy Manager, AACRAO

What should count when someone comes back to college? A course completed years ago? Military training? A professional certification? Skills developed over a decade on the job? For registrars and enrollment leaders, it raises equally consequential questions about policy, records, quality, and institutional responsibility. 

Research suggests that the answer can affect whether adult learners finish their credentials and how long and how much it costs them to do so. According to a 2020 study by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, adult learners who earned credit for prior learning were 17% more likely to complete their programs than those who did not. The study, The PLA Boost, also found that degree earners with at least 12 CPL credits saved an estimated nine to 14 months toward completion, while estimated cost savings ranged from about $1,500 to $10,200 depending on the higher education sector.

These questions on learning recognition are getting new national attention through the National Leadership Roundtable on the Recognition of Learning, the inaugural Credit for Prior Learning Awareness Week and a series of events focused on how institutions can better recognize what learners already know and can do.

This week, AACRAO announces a new National Leadership Roundtable on the Recognition of Learning, a coalition of six national higher education organizations, with a joint statement supporting expanded recognition of skills and competencies gained through work, military service, and other experiences beyond the classroom.

“As the economy and jobs are rapidly changing, employers are increasingly hiring for demonstrated skills rather than credentials alone,” said Melanie Gottlieb, Executive Director of AACRAO. “Yet colleges, universities, and states still recognize prior learning in inconsistent ways, using different terminology, standards, and credentialing practices. This coalition is about advancing systems that open recognition pathways for in-demand skills and speak one common language for prior learning and competencies, helping learners rightfully get credit and be able to demonstrate what they know and can do.”

“Learners are walking through the door with real, demonstrable skills and competencies, and our institutions and policymakers haven’t caught up to that reality yet,” said Amber Garrison Duncan, Executive Vice President & Chief Growth and Systems Transformation Officer at C-BEN. “All learning counts. Expanding recognition beyond traditional coursework to include competencies isn’t a departure from credit for prior learning, it’s the natural next step.”

“Large research studies have shown that credit for prior learning boosts persistence and graduation rates, but only 11% of adult students access it,” said Beth Doyle, Chief of Higher Education Strategy and Impact at CAEL. “That is why providing an action guide for enrollment managers and registrars is so important. It will take learning recognition from policy to practice.”

The coalition announcement also comes just before the inaugural Credit for Prior Learning Awareness Week, Sept. 21–25, organized by the North Carolina Community College System. The week brings together programming for faculty, enrollment and student services professionals, institutional leaders and others involved in CPL, with the broader goal of helping more learners receive credit for knowledge and skills they already possess.

AACRAO will contribute to those conversations on September 22 through two events:

• 10:00-11:00 a.m. ET: AACRAO Director of Government Relations Scott Filter will participate in Learning Without Borders: Federal Policy and the Future of Learning Mobility, part of the North Carolina CPL Awareness Week programming, addressing issues including CPL, transfer and credit mobility, Workforce Pell, and emerging federal priorities.
• 2:00-3:00 p.m.: AACRAO will host From Service to Scholarship: Learner Panel on Military Credit for Prior Learning, featuring military-connected learners and a discussion of how institutions can better recognize military education, training, and experience, including the role of the Joint Services Transcript. (See “What Your Credit Evaluation Process Looks Like From the Other Side of the Desk.”)

Military-connected learners offer one clear example of how learning recognition works across institutional and organizational boundaries. According to the American Council on Education, more than 2,300 colleges and universities recognize the Joint Services Transcript as official documentation of military training and experience and applicable ACE credit recommendations. ACE provides quality assurance and policy guidance for the transcript, which is used by the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard. Translating those recommendations into credit that applies toward a learner’s program, however, remains dependent on institutional policy and evaluation practices.

The announcement builds on work AACRAO described in August, when it announced that it was convening national organizations working across CPL, competency-based education, transfer, workforce learning, and related areas. The roundtable was established to develop greater alignment around terminology, quality standards, policy and institutional practice while identifying practical ways to make learning recognition more transparent and portable.

The next major product of that collaboration arrives in November, when the roundtable plans to release a guide bringing together the organizations’ expertise and identifying best practices and concrete actions institutions can take to strengthen recognition of learning.

The guide is designed primarily for registrars and enrollment leaders—professionals in our AACRAO community positioned at the intersection of academic records, transfer and articulation, academic affairs, credentialing and institutional policy. It is intended to clarify the registrar’s role in owning and coordinating CPL processes and offer practical standards and frameworks for improving quality, transparency, consistency, and learner mobility.

Together, this new coalition, forthcoming guide, and CPL Awareness Week launching September 21-25, 2026 point toward a broader goal of making recognition of learning less dependent on where a learner happens to enroll and more consistently focused on what that learner already knows and can do.