How to Pursue Credit for Prior Learning

Different Roads to Earning Credit for What you Know

Exams

In some cases, taking a test is an option for receiving college credit for experiential learning.

Consult Empire’s catalog page on Standardized Exams if you want to explore this option.

Please be aware that standardized exams have their own fees.

Pre-evaluated credit for standardized training

There may be a chance that your learning has already been pre-evaluated for credit.

Pre-evaluated credit often comes from standardized military and workplace trainings and/or licenses which have been evaluated through accrediting organizations.  If your knowledge from these sources has already been evaluated, then you simply provide verification and get the recommended credit.

Please check the following page IF you think you have had training or licenses that may fall into this pre-evaluated category, called Professional Learning Evaluations (PLE):

Prior Learning for Current Students: SUNY Empire Professional Learning Evaluations

Individualized Credit for Prior Learning (iCPL) requests

Empire offers the option of pursuing credit for prior experiential learning through individualized credit requests.  Individualized requests identify the main topic of knowledge and the sub-topics of knowledge gained within the overall topic. What is key is that your experiential knowledge needs to be college level.

Consult Empire’s catalog page on Individualized Credit for Prior Learning (iCPL) if you want to explore this option.

Also note that the rest of the pages in this chapter deal with individualized credit requests for your prior learning – how to determine whether your knowledge is college-level, and how to create those requests.