Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in Resilience(Climate Change Adaptation & Disaster Risk Reduction) in the Pacific: Opportunities and challenges in climate change education

Helene Jacot Des Combes, Amelia Siga, Leigh-Anne Buliruarua, Titilia Rabuatoka, Nixon Kua and Peni Hausia Havea

Presentation by Amelia SigaTeam Leader: EU Pacific Technical Vocational Education and Training (PacTVET)Pacific Community(SPC)

12th April 2019

OVERVIEW

• Brief Introduction of the EU PacTVET project

• Context: The importance of Resilience in the Pacific

• Context: The TVET qualification in Resilience: purpose and the training plan

• Importance of RPL for Resilience in the Pacific?

• Assessment of RPL in the Resilience context

• Challenges to assess skills for Resilience

• Contribution from the EU-PacTVET project

• Conclusions

EUPacTVET PROJECTPURPOSE:

To enhance and/or create P-ACPs regional and national capacity of, and technical expertise to respond to climate change adaptation(CCA) and sustainable energy(SE) challenges

Project involves:

a) Assess training needs in SE and CCA and existing informal and formal TVET training courses and training and education providers are identified and strengthened

b) Develop and implement benchmarks, competency standards and courses on Training of Trainers(TOT) and create a pool of national trainers

c) Develop and establish training courses and support facilities within TVET institutions

d) Strengthen networking in SE and CCA

MAJOR ISSUES: Energy Security & Climate Change

• Funding by EU and co-funded by GIZ

• Budget: 6.3 million Euros for 71 months

• Location: 15 P-ACP countries

• Implementing Partners: SPC and USP

• In this context, it is important to increase the resilience of households, communities and countries toclimate change and disasters to ensure their sustainable development.

• The community level is essential due to the isolation of islands.

• Many projects have been implemented in the Pacific, at national and community levels to increaseresilience. Many of them included capacity building through non-formal and informal training, but thelink to formal education is generally missing

Context: The importance of Resilience in the Pacific

Context: The TVET qualification in Resilience

• To increase resilience in the Pacific and to professionalise the resilience sector, the EU-PacTVET project, with the Fiji Higher Education Commission developed TVETqualifications in Resilience Levels 1-4 on PQF, integrating climate change adaptation anddisaster risk reduction.

• Because Resilience (CCA and DRR) is such a broad issue, there was a need to organisethe qualifications around strands, corresponding to specific sectors that are especiallyaffected and which are the priorities of the Pacific countries.

• Strands included: Agriculture, Coastal Management, Energy & Infrastructure,Fisheries, Forestry, Health, Tourism, and Water Resources

• Making DRR a specific sector would have negated the integration of CCA and DRM, it isthus embedded in each stream.

THE REGIONAL CERTIFICATE IN RESILIENCE(CCA & DRR)

• People living in the many island countries are already suffering from extreme weather

events such as cyclones, droughts, heavy rainfall and floods, and their effects, for example

coastal erosion and – especially on the atolls – water shortages.

• Predicted rise in sea levels, altered precipitation patterns, higher temperatures and

acidification of the ocean …….

• This jeopardises the livelihoods of the people, most of whom are engaged in agriculture,

forestry and fishing and are thus dependent on natural resources.

• Extreme weather events also have a particularly detrimental impact on health and tourism.

• However, information and knowledge management, and the monitoring and coordination of

these measures at regional and national level are in need of improvement in many

respects.

THE PURPOSE OF THE RQ IN RESILIENCE(CCA&DRR)

• The purpose of the certificate level qualifications in Resilience is to use the formal vocational education sector to facilitate building national and regional capacity to:

• raise the level of awareness of Resilience (CCA&DRR),

• develop technical skills and knowledge to accurately monitor and assess impacts of climate change and natural hazards;

• identify solutions to reduce these risks; and

• plan, manage and implement risk reduction projects to reduce damage and losses.

These qualifications contribute to the developing a Pacific Community whose people are educated and healthy and manage their resources in a sustainable way.

CLIMATE CHANGEDISASTER

CLIMATE CHANGEDISASTER

AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURE

COASTAL MANAGEMENT

COASTAL MANAGEMENT

ENERGY & RESILIENT

CONSTRUCTION

ENERGY & RESILIENT

CONSTRUCTION

FISHERIES FISHERIES

FORESTRY FORESTRY

HEALTH HEALTH

TOURISM TOURISM

WATER RESOURCES

WATER RESOURCES

L1 & L2Knowledge & Skills

L3 -Application of ClimateChange & Disaster in

L4 - Planning & Management

REGIONAL CERTIFICATE IN RESILIENCE (CCA and DRR) (LEVEL 4) TRAINING PLAN

LEVEL ONE LEVEL TWO LEVEL THREE LEVEL FOUR

SAFE

TY

Job 1.1Apply safe work practices

Job 2.1Work safely with workplace hazardsUNIT STANDARDCG3006

Job 3.1 Work safely with workplace hazardsUNIT STANDARDCG3006

Job 4.1Identify WHS Risks and Hazards for worksites and promote safe work practicesUNIT STANDARDCG4005

RE

SOU

RC

ES

Job 1.2 Select, use and maintain tools, equipment and resources for work practices in resilienceUNIT STANDARDSCR1001CG1003

Job 2.2 Select, and use survey tools to assess risk and/or vulnerability

UNIT STANDARDCR2001

Job 3.2 Assess and report levels of vulnerability of climate change and hazardsUNIT STANDARDCR3101

Job 4.2 Design and Organise Risk assessment for Climate Change and HazardUNIT STANDARDCR4101

CO

RE

SK

ILLS

Job 1.3 Identify and report Indicators for Climate Change and DisastersUNIT STANDARDSCR1002CR1003

Job 2.3 Assess and report levels of vulnerability of Climate Change and HazardsUNIT STANDARDSCR2002CR2003

Job 3.3Prepare, implement, monitor and report risk reduction and/or climate change adaptation measuresUNIT STANDARDCR3102

Job 4.3 Design and Implement Risk Reduction and/or Adaptation measuresUNIT STANDARDCR4102

PA

RT

ICIP

AT

ION

A

ND

GO

VE

RN

AN

CE Job 1.4

Engage and Communicate with StakeholdersUNIT STANDARDSCG2002CG2001CG1001

Job 2.4Select and use appropriate Community and institutional protocol UNIT STANDARDSCG2003CG2004

Job 3.4Select and use appropriate community and institutional protocolUNIT STANDARDSCR3007CR3004

Job 4.4 Select and Use effective communications and institutional protocolsUNIT STANDARDSCG4006CG4002

Job 2.5Engage and Communicate with stakeholdersUNIT STANDARDSCG2002CG2001

Job 3.5Engage and Communicate with stakeholdersUNIT STANDARDSCG4001CG3005

Job 4.5Engage and Communicate with stakeholdersUNIT STANDARDSCG4001CG4003CG4004

Why is RPL so important for Resilience in the Pacific?• Pacific islanders have a long history of adapting to a changing environment and have developed knowledge

and skills (including indigenous knowledge and local knowledge) that help them to adapt to climate change.However, these skills and knowledge are not assessed and cannot be used in formal education.

• RPL would provide a mechanism to build the self-confidence of Pacific islanders and empower them to buildresilience.

• Because of the capacity building components of the different climate change adaptation or disaster riskreduction projects conducted in the Pacific, community members acquired skills that they cannot use tocontinue their education.

• RPL would provide a mechanism to build trust between the different stakeholders in the resilience landscapeby ensuring the certified resilience practitioners have acquired the skills they are expected to and providingquality control on the capability of the resilience professionals.

Assessment of RPL in the Resilience context

• In general, skill assessment in TVET is done by demonstration. The trainees demonstrate in front of anassessor the skills they are supposed to have acquired.

• Unfortunately, some of the skills necessary in the Resilience context (e.g. skills to conduct a vulnerabilityassessment) are completed over a period of time that is too long for an assessment by directdemonstration.

• As a result, assessment needs to be based on evidences collected by the trainees prior to theassessment.

• An interview between the trainee and the assessor can be used to verify specific skills.

• The preparation of a portfolio is the expected form for assessment in the Resilience context.

• The portfolio can include activity reports, testimonies from colleagues / supervisors / clients, picture,videos, etc.

Challenges to assess skills for Resilience• Resilience skillsets are not specific but integrate different types of knowledge and skills to achieve the expected

outcome. The articulation of these skills to solve a problem is also as important as the individual skills.

• Collecting information on completed projects may be complicated, especially if the project ended several yearsbefore the assessment.

• Collecting evidence related to IKLK may be difficult because some of this knowledge is considered sacred and

secret and is not supposed to be shared outside the community.

• The collected evidence needs to be of quality, and it is generally necessary to have the evidence supported bya witness.

• When the trainees provide evidence of skills acquired during work in their own community, the witness may bethe community leader or a family leader who may be related to the trainee.

• Although this is not a problem per se, it may raise questions on potential biasness in the witness statement andon the reliability of the evidence provided.

Challenges to assess skills for Resilience (cont’d)• The assessment of resilience skills is complex and can be context (or country) specific.

• The assessment process needs to be made as clear and explicit as possible for all involved: assessor, assessed,advisor, and administrators.

• A clear role of all involved should also be available and a list of criteria for decision-making should also be madeavailable, as well as information on the possibility to appeal the decision and how to proceed

• It is important to have a clear and transparent process to:

• reinforce the trust of all stakeholders in the process; and

• decrease the nervousness of applicants who have not been in contact with formal education in a long time.For some people, the prospect of an interview during the assessment process can be very intimidating anddiscouraging.

Challenges to assess skills for resilience (cont’d)

• Another potential challenge is due to the low inter-assessor reliability on the decision on thecompetence of an trainee. The differences in assessing an applicant between two assessors can bebased on different reasons that can explicitly or implicitly inform assessment.

• In a sector as broad as Resilience, integrating different issues and with a potentially limited pool ofaccredited assessors, there is a possibility that the background and specific area of expertise of theassessors influence their decision.

• Different solutions exist to address this challenge in the Pacific (e.g. decision by a panel of assessors,or very specific guidelines on criteria for decision-making. However, these solutions will increase thedemand on financial and human resources to support the RPL process.

Challenges to assess skills for resilience (cont’d)

• Limited human and financial resources are additional challenges for RPL in thecontext of the RQ in Resilience in the Pacific islands.

• If the demand for RPL increases, in particular from applicants from islands awayfrom the capital city, then additional human and financial resources will beneeded.

• To ensure a comprehensive training of the accredited assessors is especiallyimportant since some studies question the reliability of RPL assessment due tolow inter-assessor reliability on the decision whether or not an applicant iscompetent.

Contribution from the EU-PacTVET project

• The EU-PacTVET project partnered with the Fiji Higher Education Commission(FHEC) to develop an enabling and supporting environment for the TVETproviders interested in introducing a process to recognize prior learning.

• The project focused on how to assess the acquired skills and credit the learnersto then complete a Resilience qualification.

• Consultations with stakeholders identified several challenges, in addition to theones mentioned in the previous slides, some contextual and some very practical

Contribution from the EU-PacTVET project• A regional RPL policy was developed for the Resilience and sustainable energy

qualifications, that can be adapted and used for other qualifications in the region.

• Different tools have also been developed to assist higher education institutions(HEIs) in successfully implementing RPL.

• These tools include the RPL work instruction, the RPL trainer/assessor guide, theRPL applicant guide, the RPL application form and the RPL applicant’s workhistory form.

• These tools have been made available for any HEI/country interested.

• Additionally, regional trainings have been conducted for: trainers, assessors,validators

CONCLUSIONS

• As a global first, regional TVET qualifications on Resilience (Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster

Risk Reduction) have been developed in the Pacific region, where people acquired relevant skills

from non-formal and informal training and life experience.

• In this context, a process to recognize prior learning and already acquired skills is essential to

recognise the capacity of the Pacific islanders, in particular in isolated communities.

• However, (RPL) is not a simple or straightforward process in terms of resilience in the Pacific so will

need further support

CONCLUSIONS

• The cross-cutting aspect of Resilience requests a combination of a portfolio compiling evidence of theacquired skills and interviews to better assess the skills of the applicant.

• However, this method is complex, and the quality of the assessment relies heavily on the quality of theevidence provided.

• Training of assessors and advisors needs to be comprehensive to compensate the fact that oneassessor may not be familiar with all the tools used in the Resilience sector in the Pacific region.

• Clear guidelines and intense training of assessors are thus needed.

EUPACTVET PROJECT

DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGIONAL QUALIFICATIONS(RQs):

Resilience(CCA/DRR) and SE Levels 1-4 on PQF

ISACs: PRFRP and SEAPI

REGIONAL ACCREDITATION OF QUALIFICATIONS:

Resilience and SE Levels 1-4 by EQAP and registration on PRQS

DELIVERY OF TRAINING: HEIs/Secondary Schools

Tool Kit for the Delivery and Assessment

Validation of TrainingOPTIONS: - Full qualifications

- Training of trainers(ToT)- Selected Unit Standards

- Integration of content into existing Curriculums

National training needs in SE and CCA assessed and existing informal/ formal TVET training courses and education providers are identified.

Benchmark, competency standards and courses on ToT are developed and implemented and a pool of national trainers is created

Develop and establish training courses and support facilities within TVET institutionsCCA and SE training networks strengthened

GLOBAL FIRSTS: Regionally developed

/accredited qualifications A new TVET subject area-

Resilience(CCA/DRR) Recognition and professionalization of a

Resilience sector

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