Beyond Manitoba
It’s important to analyze your company’s skills and knowledge needs prior to beginning a work-based learning initiative. A detailed analysis of how your employees actually deliver value and what they need to do so will drive solutions that provide the greatest impact for the fewest dollars
Derrin Kent has been training staff, at all levels from Director to groundsman, in the corporate sector since 1992. His company, The Development Manager, specializes in building work-based learning systems and corporate communities of practice using open-source technologies.
Manitoba Hydro - RPL Processes for Human Resource Professionals at Manitoba Hydro
Overview of Project
To strengthen its succession planning, Manitoba Hydro launched a Recognizing Prior Learning (RPL) project for human resource professionals.
The project was sparked by a national trend requiring increasing education credentials for Human Resource professionals and a commitment within Hydro to strengthen the capacity of its HR professionals to play a more strategic business function.
The project developed a customized assessment and review process that serves as a comprehensive workplace RPL model.
Needs/Opportunities
In keeping with national trends, Manitoba Hydro was looking for inreased minimum levels of education for its HR employees. At the same time, Hydro had a number of employees with long years of service – and the accompanying experience, who were candidates for progression but could not meet new minimum education requirements. For many, pursuing a multi-year university degree option was not realistic.
Applying RPL
The project applied RPL principles and practices to design and implement a comprehensive process that:
- Defined the knowledge and skill requirements – ie. competencies.
- Developed an effective process to demonstrate and assess current competencies.
- Recruited and supported qualifying employees to demonstrate and document their competencies against the requirements.
- Implemented relevant training and education strategies to meet gaps.
Impact
Manitoba Hydro has strengthened its succession planning, increasing the pool of qualified HR employees available for progression.
The customized approach helped set clear organizational expectations for skills and academic development, led to skill recognition for employees who met the internal standard, and provided employees with opportunities to gain valuable practical and formal learning that would assist in career progression.
The result is a comprehensive workplace model that can be applied to other areas of the organization.
Lessons Learned
Organizations and participating employees need to be clear about the purpose of RPL – it is not job performance evaluation, but rather a process for assessing knowledge and skills in relation to job standards.
Participants may initially be skeptical – which can be addressed by a process that is objective and transparent.