I Can Get College Credit For That?

At age 49, Andre had to plan for something he thought would never happen-he was told to finish his bachelor's degree.
Andre was the Director of Engineering at a small Silicon Valley firm and a new President of the company mandated that all managers would have a degree.

Andre was no stranger to learning-he had taken many technical classes, a certificate program and several week-long management courses. However, his for-credit college coursework was over 20 years old.
Andre set up an education plan with a goal to gain a Bachelor's degree in Business.
He would have preferred to obtain an engineering degree, but it would take 5 - 7 years for him to finish that degree.
Instead, he decided on a management degree from a school with an online accelerated format and a school that would allow him to gain credit for his life and work experience. The Assessment of Prior Learning course at Andre's online university offered a way to convert his life/work experience into college credits.

He took a class to help him learn to "package" his experience for credit.

This process to convert experience to credits is usually known as the "portfolio" process and consists of 3 parts: o Identify the skills and knowledge from life/work experience o Write about the skills and knowledge and how they are used in business, volunteer work or family life.

o Document how the skills and knowledge were acquired Identifying skills and knowledge that might be considered college credit is the first step in the portfolio process. Portfolio instructors will ask their students to review college courses to see if their knowledge of a subject matches the curriculum of the class.
Here is list of some typical titles of classes that adult students have received credits: Personal Finance Principles of Marketing Principles of Supervision Computer Applications Computer Programming Public Speaking Interviewing Techniques Creative Writing Marriage and the Family First Aid Electronics Comparative Religions Writing about the skills and how they are used is the second step.
Essays of seven to ten pages are usually required.

This essay incorporate how the knowledge or skills were developed and how they have been used in various business, volunteer, family or social settings. Documenting the skills and knowledge learned can take two forms: o Direct documentation: Fixing a machine, programming in a computer language, giving a speech, demonstrating a skill o Indirect documentation: List of completed company training classes; letter from a manager indicating dates of employment as a supervisor; certificate of completion of a training course Andre wrote essays and documented learning in 10 different areas from his work experience (engineering, management, project planning, etc.
), and from his volunteer and home life (marriage and the family, investments, coaching, etc.).

His essays were given to faculty members for evaluation to see if Andre knew the subject material, and units of credit were assigned to each essay.
Andre received the maximum of 30 credits and these were applied to his degree program. Many online colleges, both public and private and online community colleges, offer the Assessment of Prior Learning.

The writing of portfolio papers can gain valuable college credits that save time and money off a degree plan.