MOHE plans to implement APEL M by year end - Noraini

The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) plans to implement the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) for accumulation of micro qualifications (called APEL M) by the end of this year, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad said the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) encouraged institutes of higher learning (IPT) in Malaysia to offer micro-qualifications through the issuance of guidelines.

"This effort has shown results whereby Malaysia has been ranked second behind Australia in the involvement of this micro qualification initiative," she during the Ministers' Question Time session.

She said this in replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin (PH-Hang Tuah Jaya) who wanted to know how the ministry introduced micro-qualifications as an addition to APEL.

To Shamsul Iskandar's original question on the extent of the response to lifelong learning initiatives through the APEL method, Noraini said a total of 5,737 APEL applications had been received by the MQA so far and of the total, 4,111 applications were from the government, statutory bodies and the private sectors.

She also explained that three professional bodies have accepted APEL as one of the study programmes, namely the Malaysia Board of Technologists, the Board of Engineers Malaysia and the Malaysian Town Planning Board.

"Apart from the domestic market, MQA has successfully expanded APEL overseas in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Hong Kong, France, the United Kingdom and ASEAN countries under the ASEAN Quality Assurance and Network," she said.

APEL which was launched previously for admission to IPT is known as APEL (A) (Access) while APEL (C) (Credit) for credit transfer.

APEL (A) provides an opportunity for those with work experience, but less qualifications or no academic qualifications to continue their studies to a degree programme at an IPT.

APEL (C) is a method of assessing knowledge gained from work experience, life experience or a collection of short courses for the purpose of obtaining credit transfer for subjects in academic programmes at IPT.

-- BERNAMA