Turning Years of Experience into a Strong APEL.Q Portfolio
After 20 years in management, you may have dozens of projects to draw on. A strong APEL.Q portfolio gives an assessor a way to see what you learned from that work and how it relates to the expectations of a particular programme.
Start with the programme’s learning outcomes
In Malaysia, the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning for Award of Academic Qualifications (APEL.Q) assesses learning gained through experience. The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA, 2020) advises applicants to organise their portfolio evidence around the programme learning outcomes (PLOs).
Start by reading the outcomes for your chosen programme. For each outcome you can demonstrate, select work that shows the knowledge or skills you developed at the level expected. Explain what you were responsible for, what made the work challenging and which decisions you made.
Choose evidence an assessor can use
MQA’s guidance sets out five criteria that can be used to judge whether portfolio evidence is suitable. They can also help you decide what to include and what to explain about each item.
| Criterion | What it means for your portfolio |
|---|---|
| Authenticity | The evidence reflects your own work and learning. In a team project, make your individual contribution clear. |
| Acceptability | The evidence aligns with the outcome being assessed. The assessment method should judge the evidence consistently and measure the intended learning. |
| Sufficiency | The evidence, including your reflection on the work, shows the range and depth of learning the outcome requires. |
| Currency | Your learning is recent enough to demonstrate knowledge and skills that are current in your field. |
| Specificity | What you learned relates directly to a named outcome of the programme for which you seek the qualification. |
An appointment letter can establish that you held a role. A report you authored or a project record that identifies your responsibilities can help an assessor verify what you did in that role.
Show how the evidence supports the outcome
Cedefop (2023) describes four stages of validating prior learning, from identifying and documenting learning to assessing and certifying it. When documenting your learning, give the assessor a clear path from your experience to the outcome you are claiming.
Experience → what you learned → what you can now do → supporting evidence → programme learning outcome
Suppose you led the introduction of a new inventory system. If the programme has an outcome on evaluating operational decisions, explain how you used stock data to compare options, why you recommended one and what you learned from the results. Point the assessor to the options paper you wrote and the relevant section of the implementation review. If the review was a team effort, identify the analysis you contributed.
In a study of prior learning assessment, Joosten-ten Brinke et al. (2010) found that assessors relied on both the evidence and the reasoning that supported the candidate’s claim.
Keep the portfolio focused
Cedefop (2023) identifies lack of focus as a risk when candidates prepare a portfolio with limited guidance. If several documents support the same point, choose the one that makes your contribution easiest to verify. Keep additional material when it shows a different aspect of the outcome or corroborates an important claim.
If your portfolio is already long, review one learning outcome at a time. Check whether an assessor can find the relevant evidence and understand what it demonstrates. That review will show where you need a clearer explanation and where you need additional evidence.
How Swiss Academic Support helps
Swiss Academic Support (SAS) helps applicants review their professional experience, choose relevant evidence and organise it around the programme’s learning outcomes. SAS can help identify where a claim needs stronger evidence or where an existing document needs a clearer explanation.
Applicants provide their own account of their learning and the evidence that supports it. The authorised institution evaluates the application and determines the outcome through its formal APEL.Q process.
References
Cedefop. (2023). European guidelines for validating non-formal and informal learning (3rd ed.). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2801/389827.
Joosten-ten Brinke, D., Sluijsmans, D. M. A., & Jochems, W. M. G. (2010). Assessors’ approaches to portfolio assessment in assessment of prior learning procedures. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(1), 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930802563086.
Malaysian Qualifications Agency. (2020). Guidelines to good practices: Accreditation of prior experiential learning for award of academic qualifications (APEL.Q). MQA guidelines (PDF).
