Credit for Learning From Work or Life Experience

Learning Portfolio - A learning portfolio is a collection of materials that document the knowledge and skills a student has gained outside a formal educational environment. The applicant will need to compare their knowledge and skills to specific learning outcomes for the Humber course they are seeking credit for. Requirements will vary from program to program, but may consists of some of the following:

• Chronological and academic records
• Life history paper
• Learning outcomes or competency statements
• Verification of learning (documentation)
• Resumé and cover letters
• Letters of employment or reference letters
• Project and/or presentation
• Skill demonstration, role-playing or simulations
• Interview
• Development of product(s) designed to demonstrate specific knowledge and skills in action

Challenge Exam - Usually a written or oral test, and/ or structured interview or assignments.

The cover letter should (a) describe your work experience, with a focus on the research and communication skills you needed to use in this experience and (b) provide an overview of what you’ve included in your portfolio. You should consult the learning outcomes of the course for which you are seeking PLAR so that your cover letter addresses how you’ve met these learning outcomes.

Your resume should highlight your work experience and make reference to specific tasks that required reading, writing, and/or presentation skills.

Provide multiple examples of at least two different types of workplace communications you created during employment. These types of communication can include, but are not limited to, letters, memoranda, email, social media campaigns, infographics, newsletters, press releases, wikis, blogs, and websites.

Provide a proposal you wrote during employment that uses appropriate formatting for the context. The topic area of the proposal is flexible. Some examples of acceptable proposals include, but are not limited to, funding, research, methodology, and professional development proposals.

Provide a research report you wrote during employment. This report can be informational in nature (e.g. annual, progress, minutes) or analytical (e.g. feasibility, recommendation, market assessment). The report must include a research component. In addition, the report should include some or all of the following: executive summary, background context, research questions, methodology, findings, conclusions, recommendations, and a bibliography).