PLA/RPL: A Strategic Lever for Workforce Development and Transformation
Session #1: 10:00 AEST (Sydney) (+10 GMT)
Geertrui Lanneau; Ashley Jones; Anthony Chan
Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9R2I4B_pQRGsDa1O80ZhcQ
Session #2: 10:00 AM EDT (New York) (-4 GMT)
Christine Hofmann; Ernesto Villalba; Jens Brouwer
Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kW20RcGpTf6jI9RAu0DJ-Q
Across the world of work, a transformation is unfolding. Occupations shift, careers fragment, skills are redefined, and learning escapes the boundaries of classrooms and institutions. Yet our systems of recognition often remain static, formal, and exclusionary. Too much talent remains unseen. Too many experiences remain undervalued.
In PLAIO #10 we are looking for research, theories, discussions, case studies, concrete examples, and resource materials that explore and support how PLA can become a strategic force in shaping human resource development and sustainable labor markets. These contributions may share new approaches; address controversies, debates, or tensions in the field; provide insights into what has worked and not worked; or illuminate pathways for scaling PLA as a sustainable and equity-centered workforce strategy. We welcome cross-sector and cross-national perspectives that broaden our collective understanding of PLA's evolving role, as well as explorations of the conditions under which PLA policies and practices most effectively advance both individual opportunity and systemic workforce resilience. We are equally interested in bold new frameworks that envision how PLA might reshape the future of work and learning, positioning it as a catalyst for equitable workforce transformation.
Please let us know if you have any questions about this upcoming issue of PLAIO. Questions can be directed to any of our editors: Carl Burkart, Ruud Duvekot, Susan Forseille, Alan Mandell, or Nan Travers. (carl.Burkart@SUNYEmpire.edu; SForseille@tru.ca; rdu@cl3.nl; alan.mandell@Emeritus.SUNYEmpire.edu; nantravers@me.com)
We look forward to your submission by 15 October 2026.
All submissions should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents to Alexa.Collesides@SUNYEmpire.edu.
Read More Read more about Call for Contributions: PLAIO #10From Prior Learning Assessment to Open Recognition
With featured Panelists:
In this new PLAIO webinar, we continued to examine ideas, practices, and research introduced at the ePIC conference 2025 in Paris, France — the focus of two special issues of PLAIO, the first of which is now available (plaio.org).
This 90-minute session explored how we think about “open” and how our use of the term “recognition” pushes us beyond narrower understandings of assessment. We asked an honest and unsettling question: Has recognition truly become more open or has it simply become more efficient at reproducing old hierarchies? As "The Paris Declaration on the Equality of Recognitions" affirms, recognition is a fundamental human practice. Yet as it expands, it is also at risk of being re-enclosed — through standardization, institutional control, and the logics of micro-credentials. Our goal is to examine that tension directly.
The webinar mapped the deeper fault lines running through today's open recognition landscape: questions of knowledge and power (who decides what is worth recognizing?); ethics and responsibility (can recognition exclude while claiming to include?); institutional autonomy (are we building alternatives or extensions of existing systems?); and the realities of recognition as it actually happens in workplaces and communities.
We also explored a fundamental conceptual shift — from recognition of learning to recognition as learning — asking: What changes when recognition becomes a relationship rather than a transaction, an infrastructure rather than an output?
Rather than offering neat conclusions, the session surfaced what remains unresolved and kept the spirit of ePIC 2025 and of PLAIO alive as an ongoing conversation.
The recording is available at:
https://youtu.be/HttD2G-JANARead More Read more about Webinar Recording Available!
We’re pleased to share PLAIO Issue No. 9 (2025): PLA Responses to Urgent Social Realities: Access to Education and Work for Refugee, Migrant, Displaced, and Stateless People.
This issue features international perspectives on how prior learning assessment and recognition can expand access, equity, and opportunity in contexts of migration and displacement.
PLA Responses to Urgent Social Realities: Access to Education and Work for Refugee, Migrant, Displaced, and Stateless People:
Policies, Practices, and Possibilities
This session, held on January 28, 2026, explored:
With featured guests:
The recording is available at:
https://youtu.be/UCrrPzmyWr0