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This case study describe how Bahrain Polytechnic maintains academic quality while responding to students’ expectations that prior learning will be recognized in a competitive market. Although recognising prior learning is important for enhancing the student experience, Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) need confidence in the quality of transferring students prior learning. Bahrain Polytechnic differ from other HEI’s in the Kingdom of Bahrain in that it delivers applied, professional and technical qualifications. Graduates are expected to be work-ready; confident and competent, aware of what is expected of them in the professional world, and able to perform to their full potential (Bahrain Polytechnic, 2017). Programmes, qualifications and courses, and the underlying methodology of how they are delivered are developed in consultation with businesses, industries, professions, international education and training institutions to ensure that Bahrain Polytechnic graduates meet the needs of the labour market, thus supplying Bahrain’s economy with a source of highly skilled graduates. This enforces the use of a unique teaching and learning philosophy represented in Problem-based Learning (PBL) (Bahrain Polytechnic, 2017). Therefore, Bahrain Polytechnic need to be very cautious when assessing any RPL application. This paper identifies student mobility and internationalization as important and legitimate issues for both individual institutions and for educational quality assurance bodies. It then focuses on the Bahrain Polytechnic’s approach in acknowledging students prior learning through formal education. Following significant internal consultation, Bahrain Polytechnic has developed a more robust process for awarding credits/ exemptions to students based on formal education in other approved HEI’s.

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a process by which both formal learning for recognised awards, informal learning from experience and non-formal learning for uncertificated but planned learning is given academic recognition. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper refers to international developments in RPL and then focuses upon the extensive and innovative use of RPL by Middlesex University and the developing RPL work at the Australian Institute of Business.

The Middlesex experience of recognition of learning from experience as part of the development of customised work-based learning programmes demonstrates the potential of RPL for business and management programmes.

The use of RPL for admission and/or credit in standard programmes enables individuals to have their work-based knowledge acknowledged as relevant, worthwhile and equivalent to learning obtained in the higher education classroom.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which work-based learning could potentially improve education and training pathways in Australia.

The paper reviews education and training provision in Australia through a contextualisation of the Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) with work-based learning pedagogy to determine the extent to which it might contribute to improved outcomes for learners.

People seeking to advance their career aspirations can consider the application of work-based learning to support lifelong learning pathways through the AQF.

There is a need for further longitudinal studies on the outcomes of work-based learning for organisations, individual learners and education and training institutions.

The application of effective WBL approaches has the potential to create a much larger flow of learners from experiential and vocational backgrounds into undergraduate programmes and onto higher education programmes using a consistent and effective pedagogy.

By actively considering the opportunities for learning at work and through work learners, educators and business managers may recognise that there would be more demand for work-based learning.

This paper represents an initial action research study which examines the role WBL can provide for life-long learning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of work-based research projects at postgraduate level. The focus of this paper is to measure the impact of masters- and doctoral-level work-based projects which was the specific contribution of one group of researchers to the Nixon et al.’s (2008) study.

This paper is based on data generated as part of a wider study that examines the impact of work-based learning projects across undergraduate through to doctoral level from the perspective of employers and from the employees perspective. The research study is based on a sample of alumni who had graduated from work-based masters and professional doctorate programmes and their corresponding employers in a UK higher education institution.

At masters and doctorate level the work-based project can often make an impact on the work context and also have a developmental effect on the employee who becomes a practitioner-researcher to undertake the project.

This paper finds that work-based projects are often an investment that companies make that have the propensity to yield tangible business success as well as providing an incentive for key staff to remain in the company and achieve university recognition.

Lifelong learning needs to be visualized as the milestone for generating a progressive and knowledge society. Because it is through lifelong learning that one can continuously upgrade one's knowledge and acquire the relevant skills for getting livelihood opportunities. Moreover, for ensuring a sustainable and advanced society in the 21st century industrial setup, people are desirous to receive a global form of learning as they tend to follow the principle, that is, “earning while learning”. In this context, the various types of online courses, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Educational Resources (OERs) provide myriad opportunities to the people by introducing them to a global form of learning. Against this background, the introduction of MOOCs in India for providing lifelong learning opportunities might work in a big way. However, to what extent, can MOOCs promote the idea of lifelong learning in a vast country like India needs to be discussed in greater detail.

While writing the paper, descriptive research methodology has been used. The sources such as Report of Census 2011, Human Development Report 2016, 2018, Economic Survey 2016 are also consulted. Analysis has been done based on the data extracted from the secondary source of information.

The literature review made in the paper implies that the educational institutes across India may adopt some of the good national and international practices for transforming the society and produce some need-based MOOCs under the SWAYAM platform with regard to providing opportunities of lifelong learning. Thus, the courses run through SWAYAM should help in achieving the three cardinal principles of the Indian Education – access, equity and quality. However, there are many challenges to be met while the adoption and development of MOOCs for the purpose of lifelong learning in India are taken into consideration. The current modes and popularity of digitally offered education in India thus need to be justified.

The discussions made in the paper are limited to a reference to the Indian MOOCs particularly under SWAYAM, and it is a general study only.

It is important to note that a new kind of transformation is currently being initiated across the world by encouraging more and more online interventions in the field of education. In fact, various studies are also being conducted on the implementation of online courses across the world, particularly in the developed countries where more than 70% education is delivered online. However, in a country like India, the practical utility or the implementation of the online courses such as MOOCs is not so popular even at present, and it is only limited to a small section of the society. The University Grants Commission (UGC) with a view to promoting CBCS as well as Credit Transfer made 20% course delivery through MOOCs mandatory in Indian higher education. However, the CBCS system itself has several loopholes considered in the Indian context, as it was launched without sufficient ground work, and no one seems to have a clear idea of its implementation method. The UGC's move was to introduce a system of education that would help in bringing parity of Indian higher education with Western or European higher education systems. This paper shall try to imply how the Indian MOOCs should be used in providing lifelong learning opportunities to the people of the country.

This paper refers to a new social constructivism initiated through MOOCs, where a learner can directly interact with the people in the community, share their own ideas and thoughts and collectively undertake new researches. This is sure to transform the Indian society in the days to come, although a study on the usefulness of the existing MOOCs is of utmost necessity

This paper reiterates the necessity of a detailed study of the available MOOCs in India based on the findings of the common problems and challenges of MOOCs development and implementations that need to be resolved first. Then the paper provides an analysis of this situation so that one could develop or adopt a MOOC in order to meet one's need of lifelong learning in a country like India.

Despite business schools teaching human resources management (HRM) for several decades, the skill set of graduates today fails to match the requirements of the industry. Although some attempt has been made to make the HRM curricula relevant, in most cases, a large gap exists between the subject, its assessment and the industry demands. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the changing trends in the field of HR and present ideas that will guide modern HRM curriculum development.

The paper draws on professional experience of the authors in teaching and developing HR curricula as well as literature illustrations from work-based learning.

To achieve relevancy, HR curricula need to focus more on professional work-based skills that are pertinent to the contemporary workplace and re-structure exam formats to be in line with skills required in the HR profession.

There is an opportunity to test the ideas expressed in this paper empirically; this can normally be done through a triad focus group including employers, students and teachers.

The paper is predicated on the mismatch between the teaching and assessment of some HR subjects and the needs of the contemporary HR profession.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) is implemented, the challenges faced by the APEL assessors while assessing candidates as well as to suggest recommendations for improving the APEL process.

This paper is written based on the critical reflection of two accreditation of prior experiential learning: admissions (APEL-A) assessors appointed from a Malaysian Qualifications Agency approved assessment centre. This process would add depth and breadth to the study based on the assessor’s experience.

The study identified five challenges in the implementation of APEL-A. They are limited literature and records of the existing practices, conceptualisation of the APEL process, complicated and time-consuming APEL process, standard of acceptance vary according to discipline and lack of continuous training for APEL assessors. The four recommendations for improvements are as follows: the need for transparent and clear guidelines, ensuring consistency in practices and fairness to those from conventional learning, integrating APEL as part of the institution’s academic policy and providing continuous training for all APEL assessors.

Until now, not much research has been done regarding its implementation in Malaysia. The number of learners enrolled through this form of assessment may be low but growing. The feedback on the implementation of the APEL-A assessment process would be greatly beneficial to the stakeholders involved in improving its implementation process. The highlighted challenges faced as well as the recommendations put forth may also be useful for the continuous improvement of the APEL-A assessment process. Relevant stakeholders would benefit from this study.

This paper aims to depart from the premise that human capital investments and human capital outcomes are often tacit – an aspect, which is often neglected in the current literature on entrepreneurial human capital. The idea of this conceptual paper is to shed light on the social process of how human capital investments and human capital outcomes can be valued and made visible through the validation of prior learning. Thus, this study conceptualises the validation of prior learning as a post hoc, the reflective process through which an aspiring entrepreneur is guided.

This paper is conceptual and introduces a process model.

Findings indicate that the process of the validation of prior learning is well-suitable to inform aspiring entrepreneurs of their investments into human capital and their human capital outcomes. The process results in a (partial) certified qualification that provides entrepreneurial legitimacy.

Thus far, the model is conceptual and should be validated via interviews and further empirical studies in the field.

Literature in the field of entrepreneurial human capital suggests that human capital outcomes are more important for success than inputs. Furthermore, context-specific knowledge, skills and abilities are more important than generalised outcomes. These findings have implications for the design of validation procedures.

Human capital has only been recently conceptualised as consisting of human capital investments and outcomes of human capital investment. However, thus far the literature falls short in acknowledging the tacit nature of human capital investments and human capital outcomes. This paper contributes a structured process of how human capital investments and human capital outcomes are linked and assessed. In so doing, this study extends a recent model of human capital investments and outputs (Marvel et al., 2016, p. 616).