Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)  is a method of assessment whereby we can assess you as competent in a unit of competency of the 10773 Certificate IV in TESOL by reviewing the evidence you can provide from your work and other history, rather than by grading the assessment tasks you would otherwise submit, like other course participants.

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We need to be confident that you have the skills, knowledge and attributes to perform the work you say you can, so the evidence you will need to provide can be considerable, even when your resume, job description and references from your supervisor and colleagues state you can do the work to a satisfactory level. Each of the 12 units of competency in the 10773NAT Certificate IV in TESOL has detailed areas of work skills and knowledge, called 'performance criteria, which must be demonstrated to a satisfactory level by you and our other course participants, whether it is through the submission of assessment tasks or the submission of RPL evidence.

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On this page we will show you the evidence submitted by Raymond Smith, a candidate applying for RPL in the 10429 Certificate IV in TESOL. Please note that the course code for this qualification changed from 10429NAT to 10773NAT in January 2019. The course itself did not change at all - only its code did.

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All of the evidence you can see in this collection has been manufactured by us. The people and organisations you will see are fictitious. 

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Raymond Smith is an experienced English teacher who wants to gain the Certificate IV in TESOL. He has read the RPL kit and believes he has enough experience to demonstrate competence in all of the 12 units of the qualification, as he has been teaching English to speakers of other languages for three and a half years. Three of these years were spent teaching a range of groups and class-types in language schools outside Australia. He has also been doing some tutoring online and face-to-face for small groups and one-on-one since returning to Australia a few months ago.

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Raymond would like to work at a language school in Sydney and needs the Certificate IV in TESOL qualification to do so. He plans to combine his marketing career with his teaching career as he loves doing both.

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Raymond filled in the enrolment form after reading about the course and reading the RPL kit. On the enrolment form he stated that he wanted to be assessed via RPL for all 12 units. He uploaded his resume with the enrolment form and Sara, one of our assessors, emailed him the next day and arranged for a 15 minute interview with him on the phone. (This interview could also have been conducted via Skype/ Face Time or face-to-face). 

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Sara made notes during the interview about Raymond's experience and the answers he gave to her questions about teaching English and determined that he could apply for all 12 units of the qualification via RPL. They discussed the evidence he would supply, using the RPL kit as their guide.

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Raymond then started collecting this evidence, which took him a couple of weeks, as he was working as an English tutor and doing some of his freelance marketing work for clients. When he had gathered it, labelled it and sorted it, he filled in the RPL kit and submitted it and his evidence files by emailing them to Sara. Sara kept a folder at work with Raymond's RPL kit and evidence in it and added all of the files, and her notes to it. She made her notes on his evidence on the RPL kit he had filled in and sent her.

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A couple of times Sara emailed Raymond asking for more evidence as he had not provided everything needed for all 12 units, but this was not a problem. After a week, Sara had reviewed all of Raymond's evidence and made her assessment notes. It took a week because Sara needed to ensure the evidence was:

• valid

• current

• sufficient, and

• authentic

before deciding on whether it demonstrated competence in each of the units Raymond had applied for RPL assessment for. 

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At any stage of this review of Raymond's evidence, if she had considered the evidence to be insufficient (for any particular unit), she would have contacted him to ask for more (evidence). If Raymond was unable to provide it, he would have informed him that he needed to do 'gap training' by completing some of the assessment tasks from the unit, just as the other students doing the course by coursework were doing. She would have stated this by emailing him.

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On this page, we will show you the evidence that Raymond submitted which was graded as satisfactory and used to grant a 'competent' grading for each of the 12 units. 

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Look first at the RPL kit which Raymond filled in and submitted with his evidence as this is show you what unit each piece of evidence related to. As you can see, it is quite a bit of evidence, despite the fact that some of the submitted files relate to multiple, or all, units. It is not unusual for candidates to spend 15 - 20 hours collecting, scanning, labeling and sorting it before sending it.