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MCC Daily Tribune

Monroe Community College students can earn college credit for what they already know.

In December 2018, MCC launched a prior learning assessment (PLA) pilot program. This program is led by the Economic Development and Innovative Workforce Services division, and supported by a cross-divisional team. To implement this program, MCC consulted with CAEL (Council for Adult & Experiential Learning), a national nonprofit organization that works with higher education institutions to support adults in pursuit of education and training. CAEL is recognized as a national authority on PLA, and helped MCC launch this program by teaming up to develop an internal process and execution plan. To facilitate this process, MCC licensed CAEL's online web tool to make it easy for prospective students to provide the College with their specific career experiences and skill sets for faculty review.

Since launching the PLA initiative, it has attracted interest from over 200 students. To date, findings include:

  • the need for a shortened PLA web form to improve the probability that prospects will complete the entire form. This change was created based on observing prospective students' interaction with the online tool and successful submission rates.
  • a College savings of $9,000 per year, by building and launching our own web tool following the evaluation period that will shorten the online experience for the prospective PLA student.
  • student interest in 15 MCC programs, which include: Accounting: General, A.A.S., Air Conditioning Technology: Heating and Ventilation, A.A.S., Business Administration, A.S., Computer Systems Technology, A.A.S., Criminal Justice: Police, A.A.S., Early Care, Certificate, Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning, Certificate, Information and Network Technology, A.A.S., Liberal Arts and Sciences: Adolescence Education, A.A., Liberal Arts and Sciences: Childhood Education, A.A., Liberal Arts and Sciences: Early Childhood Education, A.A., Mechatronics, Certificate, Precision Machining, Certificate, Precision Machining - Optical Fabrication, Certificate, Precision Machining, A.A.S.

Check out the newly developed MCC PLA landing page here. You are welcomed and encouraged to share any suggestions regarding ongoing improvement and development of the MCC PLA process by emailing vp-ediws@monroecc.edu.

Todd Oldham
Economic and Workforce Development and Career Technical Education VP Office
07/25/2019