Various corporations spend a great deal
of time and money on their employees’
corporate training programs. At the same time, many employers offer their
employees college tuition reimbursement.
When employees enrolls in both their company training program as well as a college
program, the content may be duplicated. As a
result, the company may pay for the educational training twice. To avoid this duplication, companies can have their training programs evaluated to see if the courses qualify
for college credit. If the courses do qualify,
the company saves money and the employees save time by not repeating subject matter.
In addition, the company receives validation
that its training programs are of high quality.
Smart Business spoke to Arthur Hunborg,
director of prior learning assessment and off-campus sites at Fontbonne University, about
how colleges evaluate prior learning.
How can a company tell if its training programs qualify for college credit?
Corporate human resource departments
can request to have the American Council on
Education (ACE), a college credit recommendation service, review their corporate
training. Recommendations by ACE are
intended to guide colleges and universities as
they consider awarding college credit to
given students. Corporations can contact the
national or state ACE offices to have their
corporate training evaluated.
Will universities grant credit to employees
for certain learning already obtained?
Yes. Most colleges and universities throughout the United States have a Prior Learning
Assessment Center to review educational
experiences outside the traditional classroom. A prior learning assessment is a concept based on accepted principles of adult
learning and serves to validate the professional competence achieved by adults outside the classroom.
For what types of prior learning do colleges
and universities grant credit?
In addition to possibly granting college
credit for corporate/educational training that has already been reviewed by ACE, colleges
and universities may also award credit hours
for successful performance on College-Level
Examination Program (CLEP) standardized
tests, which provide students the opportunity to demonstrate their college-level outcomes through a program of competency
exams in undergraduate college courses.
ACE also conducts evaluations of the outcomes of military service educational training and, once completed, it recommends, if
warranted, college credits for the respective
military educational and occupational (MOS)
training. Many colleges and universities also
have internal, standardized departmental
proficiency exams to award their students
with college-level education experiences
gained outside the traditional classroom.
Lastly, students may verifying their educational learning outcomes by completing a
Documented Learning Portfolio, which
offers students another avenue to attain college credit in a nontraditional format.
How can an individual’s ACE recommendation help a company?
First, it validates that the company’s training programs are of high quality. Second, once they are cognizant of the fact that their
corporation’s educational training programs
have been approved by ACE and are transferable college credits, employees will possibly be more likely to actively seek out corporate educational opportunities offered by
their employer. Third, the educational posting fees for ACE-recommended credit hours
are usually fairly minimal — usually around
$35 to $50 per credit hour. Given the tuition
cost of private and public colleges and universities throughout the U.S., this can be an
additional cost benefit to corporations that
offer tuition reimbursement.
How many ACE-recommended credit hours
will a college or university accept?
This varies depending on the institution
and the ACE recommendation. Colleges
and universities may have a multitude of
stipulations on the acceptance and posting
of prior learning credits. Many colleges and
universities will not accept ACE vocational
recommendation credit hours. Most colleges and universities accept up to 48 to 60
prior learning credit hours to be posted to
their official college transcripts at the undergraduate level. A small number of earned
prior learning credit hours may be used to
fulfill the university’s general educational
requirements, but most corporate learning/training evaluated by ACE will be utilized to fulfill elective hours.
Why is prior learning assessment attractive
for employees?
Most college students, adult learners in particular, are very consumer-oriented and like
to be rewarded for college-level learning outcomes attained outside the traditional classroom. It helps students attain additional credit hours in a practical manner, and it usually
saves the student money. We’ve found that
business professionals seek out ACE-recommended corporate training, so employers
that offer it are generally viewed positively as
having a strong commitment to high-quality,
ongoing education.
ARTHUR HUNBORG is the director of prior learning assessment and off-campus sites at Fontbonne University. Reach him at (314)
719-8009 or [email protected].
