Education
Hard up for students, more colleges are offering college credit for life experience, or ‘prior learning’
PITTSBURGH — Stephen Wells was trained in the Air Force to work on F-16 fighter jets, including critical radar, navigation and weapons systems whose proper functioning meant life or death for pilots.
Yet when he left the service and tried to apply that expertise toward an education at Pittsburgh’s Community College of Allegheny County, or CCAC, he was given just three credits toward a required class in physical education.
Wells moved forward anyway, going on to get his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees. Now he’s CCAC’s provost and involved in a citywide project to help other people transform their military and work experience into academic credit.
What’s happening in Pittsburgh is part of growing national momentum behind letting students — especially the increasing number who started but never completed a degree — cash in their life skills toward finally getting one, saving them time and money.
Colleges and universities have long purported to provide what’s known in higher education as credit for prior learning. But they have made the process so complex, slow and expensive that only about 1 in 10 students actually completes it.
Many students don’t even try, especially low-income learners who could benefit the most, according to a study by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, or CAEL.
“It drives me nuts” that this promise has historically proven so elusive, Wells said, in his college’s new Center for Education, Innovation & Training.
That appears to be changing. Nearly half of institutions surveyed last year by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, or AACRAO, said they have added more ways for students to receive these credits — electricians, for example, who can apply some of their training toward academic courses in electrical engineering, and daycare workers who can use their experience to earn degrees in teaching.
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The reason universities and colleges are doing this is simple: Nearly 38 million working-age Americans have spent some time in college but never finished, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Getting at least some of them to come back has become essential to these higher education institutions at a time when changing demographics mean that the number of 18-year-old high school graduates is falling.
“When higher education institutions are fat and happy, nobody looks for these things. Only when those traditional pipelines dry up do we start looking for other potential populations,” said Jeffrey Harmon, vice provost for strategic initiatives and institutional effectiveness at Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey, which has long given adult learners credit for the skills they bring.
Being able to get credit for prior learning is a huge potential recruiting tool. Eighty-four percent of adults who are leaning toward going back to college say it would have “a strong influence” on their decision, according to research by CAEL, the Strada Education Foundation and Hanover Research. (Strada is among the funders of The Hechinger Report, which produced this story.)
When Melissa DiMatteo, 38, decided to get an associate degree at CCAC to go further in her job, she got six credits for her previous training in Microsoft Office and her work experience as everything from a receptionist to a supervisor. That spared her from having to take two required courses in computer information and technology and — since she’s going to school part time and taking one course per semester — saved her a year.
“Taking those classes would have been a complete waste of my time,” DiMatteo said. “These are things that I do every day. I supervise other people and train them on how to do this work.”
On average, students who get credit for prior learning save between $1,500 and $10,200 apiece and nearly seven months off the time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree, the nonprofit advocacy group Higher Learning Advocates calculates. The likelihood that they will graduate is 17 percent higher, the organization finds.
Related: The number of 18-year-olds is about to drop sharply, packing a wallop for colleges — and the economy
Justin Hand dropped out of college because of the cost, and became a largely self-taught information technology manager before he decided to go back and get an associate and then a bachelor’s degree so he could move up in his career.
He got 15 credits — a full semester’s worth — through a program at the University of Memphis for which he wrote essays to prove he had already mastered software development, database management, computer networking and other skills.
“These were all the things I do on a daily basis,” said Hand, of Memphis, who is 50 and married, with a teenage son. “And I didn’t want to have to prolong college any more than I needed to.”
Meanwhile, employers and policymakers are pushing colleges to speed up the output of graduates with skills required in the workforce, including by giving more students credit for their prior learning. And online behemoths Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University, with which brick-and-mortar colleges compete, are way ahead of them in conferring credit for past experience.
“They’ve mastered this and used it as a marketing tool,” said Kristen Vanselow, assistant vice president of innovative education and partnerships at Florida Gulf Coast University, which has expanded its awarding of credit for prior learning. “More traditional higher education institutions have been slower to adapt.”
It’s also gotten easier to evaluate how skills that someone learns in life equate to academic courses or programs. This has traditionally required students to submit portfolios, take tests or write essays, as Hand did, and faculty to subjectively and individually assess them.
Related: As colleges lose enrollment, some turn to one market that’s growing: Hispanic students
Now some institutions, states, systems and independent companies are standardizing this work or using artificial intelligence to do it. The growth of certifications from professional organizations such as Amazon Web Services and the Computing Technology Industry Association, or CompTIA, has helped, too.
“You literally punch [an industry certification] into our database and it tells you what credit you can get,” said Philip Giarraffa, executive director of articulation and academic pathways at Miami Dade College. “When I started here, that could take anywhere from two weeks to three months.”
Data provided by Miami Dade shows it has septupled the number of credits for prior learning awarded since 2020, from 1,197 then to 7,805 last year.
“These are students that most likely would have looked elsewhere, whether to the [online] University of Phoenix or University of Maryland Global [Campus]” or other big competitors, Giarraffa said.
Fifteen percent of undergraduates enrolled in higher education full time and 40 percent enrolled part time are 25 or older, federal data show — including people who delayed college to serve in the military, volunteer or do other work that could translate into academic credit.
“Nobody wants to sit in a class where they already have all this knowledge,” Giarraffa said.
At Thomas Edison, police academy graduates qualify for up to 30 credits toward associate degrees. Carpenters who have completed apprenticeships can get as many as 74 credits in subjects including math, management and safety training. Bachelor’s degrees are often a prerequisite for promotion for people in professions such as these, or who hope to start their own companies.
Related: To fill ‘education deserts,’ more states want community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees
The University of Memphis works with FedEx, headquartered nearby, to give employees with supervisory training academic credit they can use toward a degree in organizational leadership, helping them move up in the company.
The University of North Carolina System last year launched its Military Equivalency System, which lets active-duty and former military service members find out almost instantly, before applying for admission, if their training could be used for academic credit. That had previously required contacting admissions offices, registrars or department chairs.
Among the reasons for this reform was that so many of these prospective students — and the federal education benefits they get — were ending up at out-of-state universities, the UNC System’s strategic plan notes.
“We’re trying to change that,” said Kathie Sidner, the system’s director of workforce and partnerships. It’s not only for the sake of enrollment and revenue, Sidner said. “From a workforce standpoint, these individuals have tremendous skill sets and we want to retain them as opposed to them moving somewhere else.”
Related: A new way to help some college students: Zero percent, no-fee loans
California’s community colleges are also expanding their credit for prior learning programs as part of a plan to increase the proportion of the population with educations beyond high school.
“How many people do you know who say, ‘College isn’t for me?’ ” asked Sam Lee, senior advisor to the system’s chancellor for credit for prior learning. “It makes a huge difference when you say to them that what they’ve been doing is equivalent to college coursework already.”
In Pittsburgh, the Regional Upskilling Alliance — of which CCAC is a part — is connecting job centers, community groups, businesses and educational institutions to create comprehensive education and employment records so more workers can get credit for skills they already have.
That can provide a big push, “especially if you’re talking about parents who think, ‘I’ll never be able to go to school,’ ” said Sabrina Saunders Mosby, president and CEO of the nonprofit Vibrant Pittsburgh, a coalition of business and civic leaders involved in the effort.
Pennsylvania is facing among the nation’s most severe declines in the number of 18-year-old high school graduates.
“Our members are companies that need talent,” Mosby said.
There’s one group that has historically pushed back against awarding credit for prior learning: university and college faculty concerned it might affect enrollment in their courses or unconvinced that training provided elsewhere is of comparable quality. Institutions have worried about the loss of revenue from awarding credits for which students would otherwise have had to pay.
That also appears to be changing, as universities leverage credit for prior learning to recruit more students and keep them enrolled for longer, resulting in more revenue — not less.
“That monetary factor was something of a myth,” said Beth Doyle, chief of strategy at CAEL.
Faculty have increasingly come around, too. That’s sometimes because they like having experienced students in their classrooms, Florida Gulf Coast’s Vanselow said.
Related: States want adults to return to college. Many roadblocks stand in the way
Still, while many recognize it as a recruiting incentive, most public universities and colleges have had to be ordered to confer more credits for prior learning by legislatures or governing boards. Private, nonprofit colleges remain stubbornly less likely to give it.
More than two-thirds charge a fee for evaluating whether other kinds of learning can be transformed into academic credit, an expense that isn’t covered by financial aid. Roughly one in 12 charge the same as it would cost to take the course for which the credits are awarded.
Seventy percent of institutions require that students apply for admission and be accepted before learning whether credits for prior learning will be awarded. Eighty-five percent limit how many credits for prior learning a student can receive.
There are other confounding roadblocks and seemingly self-defeating policies. CCAC runs a noncredit program to train paramedics, for example, but won’t give people who complete it credits toward its for-credit nursing degree. Many leave and go across town to a private university that will. The college is working on fixing this, said Debra Roach, its vice president of workforce development.
It’s important to see this from the students’ point of view, said Tracy Robinson, executive director of the University of Memphis Center for Regional Economic Enrichment.
“Credit for prior learning is a way for us to say, ‘We want you back. We value what you’ve been doing since you’ve been gone,’ ” Robinson said. “And that is a total game changer.”
Contact writer Jon Marcus at 212-678-7556, jmarcus@hechingerreport.org or jpm.82 on Signal.
This story about credit for prior learning was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.
Nearly a week after Kolkata-headquartered Crizac raised Rs. 860 crore (£73.9 million) through its initial public offering (IPO), structured as an offer for sale (OFS) by promoters Pinky Agarwal and Manish Agarwal, the company’s shares surged in domestic stock markets on Wednesday, at nearly a 15% premium above the issue price of Rs. 245.
The IPO’s success – managed by Equirus Capital Private Limited and Anand Rathi Advisors Limited – along with its strong performance on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange, is expected to fuel Crizac’s expansion into new destinations and services.
“The reason we went for a full OFS, or fully secondary, as we might say in the UK, is because the company’s balance sheet is very strong. We already have sufficient capital to support our expansion plans. Our focus remains on diversifying globally, which has been our strength over the past five years and will continue to be our strength in the future,” Christopher Nagle, CEO of Crizac, told The PIE News.
While an OFS means that the company, in this case, Crizac, did not raise new capital through the IPO – with proceeds instead going to existing shareholders, namely the Agarwals – its entry into the financial markets allows the company to publicly demonstrate “the scale, size, and operations of the company in a transparent way”, according to Nagle.
Crizac’s decision to go public comes as it looks to expand, beyond student recruitment, into areas such as student loans, housing, and other services.
The company is also eyeing new geographies and high-growth markets within India.
We also see great potential and can add great value in other destinations like Ireland, the USA, and Australia
Vikash Agarwal, Crizac
“We have a strong plan to expand across cities in India. Even though we are already one of the biggest recruiters for India-UK, we believe there’s still significant room for growth,” stated Vikash Agarwal, chairman and managing director, Crizac.
“We also see great potential and can add great value in other destinations like Ireland, the USA, and Australia,” he added.
Crizac, which reported a total income of Rs. 849.5 crore (£78m) in FY25, currently works with over 10,000 agents and some 173 international institutions.
Tthrough its stock market listing, the company aims to strengthen confidence among it partners.
“The fact that we are listed doesn’t change how we interact with agents, but we believe it will lead to even greater trust from universities and agent partners alike, thanks to the level of diligence and corporate governance that is now required of us,” stated Nagle.
With a market capitalisation of Rs 5,379.84 crore (nearly £555m), Crizac’s solid financial track record and low debt levels have been key drivers behind its IPO, even as changing policies in major study destinations continue to influence the sector.
As destinations like Australia hike visa fees, the UK increases compliance among institutions and considers imposing levies on international student fees, the US tightens vetting and eyes visa time limits, and Canada raises financial thresholds amid falling study permits, it remains to be seen how students from India, Nigeria, and China will navigate their study abroad choices in the coming years.
According to government data presented in the Indian Parliament, there was a nearly 15% decline in Indian students going abroad, largely in the major four destinations, while countries like Germany, Russia, France, Ireland, and New Zealand saw increased interest.
However, despite the downturn, Crizac is confident that its move will inspire other Indian education companies to create value on the global stage.
“Being the first listed company in this space will unlock significant value for the industry. We believe many are already watching our listing closely, and there will be a lot others going public from this sector now,” stated Agarwal.
The integration of artificial intelligence into our daily lives is no longer a futuristic concept but a present-day reality, fundamentally reshaping industries and institutions. From the bustling floors of global corporations to the hallowed halls of academia, AI is proving to be a transformative, yet complex, force. For business and tech leaders, understanding the dual nature of this technological revolution—its remarkable advantages and its inherent challenges—is paramount. There are both pros and cons on AI in the workplace and in education: this article delves into the multifaceted impact of AI in the workplace and education, exploring the significant opportunities it presents alongside the critical concerns that demand our attention.
AI in the Workplace: A New Era of Productivity and Peril
The modern workplace is in the throes of an AI-driven evolution, promising unprecedented levels of efficiency and innovation. One of the most significant pros of artificial intelligence in a professional setting is its ability to automate repetitive and mundane tasks. This allows human employees to redirect their focus towards more strategic, creative, and complex problem-solving endeavors. For instance, in the realm of human resources, AI-powered tools can screen thousands of resumes in minutes, a task that would take a team of recruiters days to complete. Companies like Oracle are leveraging their AI-powered human resource solutions to streamline candidate sourcing and improve hiring decisions, freeing up HR professionals to concentrate on building relationships and fostering a positive work environment.
Beyond automation, AI is a powerful engine for enhanced decision-making. By analyzing vast datasets, machine learning algorithms can identify patterns and trends that are imperceptible to the human eye, providing data-driven insights that inform strategic business choices. In the financial sector, AI algorithms are instrumental in fraud detection, analyzing transaction patterns in real-time to flag anomalies and prevent fraudulent activities before they cause significant damage. Similarly, in manufacturing, companies like Siemens are utilizing AI-powered “Industrial Copilots” to monitor machinery, predict maintenance needs, and prevent costly downtime, thereby optimizing production lines and ensuring operational continuity.
However, the widespread adoption of AI in the workplace is not without its cons. The most pressing concern for many is the specter of job displacement. As AI systems become more sophisticated, there is a legitimate fear that roles currently performed by humans, particularly those involving routine and predictable tasks, will become obsolete. While some argue that AI will create new jobs, there is a transitional period that could see significant disruption and require a massive effort in upskilling and reskilling the workforce.
Furthermore, the ethical implications of AI cannot be overstated. The potential for bias in AI algorithms is a significant challenge. If an AI system is trained on biased data, it will perpetuate and even amplify those biases in its decision-making processes. Additionally, the increasing use of AI raises serious privacy concerns — some people have go on to create distasteful clothes remover AI tools. The vast amounts of data that AI systems collect and process, from employee performance metrics to customer behavior, create a treasure trove of sensitive information that must be protected from misuse and security breaches.
AI in Education: Personalizing Learning While Preserving the Human Touch
The educational landscape is also being profoundly reshaped by artificial intelligence, with the promise of creating more personalized, engaging, and accessible learning experiences. One of the most celebrated benefits of AI in education is its capacity to facilitate personalized learning at scale. AI-powered adaptive learning platforms can tailor educational content to the individual needs and learning pace of each student. For example, platforms like Carnegie Learning’s “Mika” software use AI to provide personalized tutoring in mathematics, offering real-time feedback and adapting the curriculum to address a student’s specific areas of difficulty. This individualized approach has the potential to revolutionize how we teach and learn, moving away from a one-size-fits-all model to a more student-centric methodology.
AI is also a valuable tool for automating the administrative burdens that often consume a significant portion of educators’ time. Grading multiple-choice tests, managing schedules, and tracking attendance are all tasks that can be efficiently handled by AI systems. This frees up teachers to focus on what they do best: inspiring, mentoring, and interacting directly with their students. Language-learning apps like Duolingo are a prime example of AI in action, using machine learning to personalize lessons and provide instant feedback, making language education more accessible and engaging for millions of users worldwide.
Despite these advancements, the integration of AI in education raises a number of critical concerns and cons. A primary worry is the potential for a diminished human connection in the learning process. While AI can provide personalized content, it cannot replicate the empathy, encouragement, and nuanced understanding that a human teacher provides. Over-reliance on technology could lead to a sense of isolation for students and hinder the development of crucial social and emotional skills.
Data privacy is another significant hurdle. Educational AI platforms collect vast amounts of student data, from academic performance to learning behaviors. Ensuring the security and ethical use of this sensitive information is paramount. There is a tangible risk of this data being misused or falling victim to cyberattacks, which could have serious consequences for students and educational institutions.
In conclusion, artificial intelligence has both pros and cons, both the workplace and the field of education. The potential for increased productivity, data-driven insights, and personalized experiences is immense. However, we must proceed with a clear-eyed understanding of the challenges. Addressing concerns around job displacement, data privacy, and the importance of human interaction will be crucial in harnessing the full potential of AI for the betterment of our professional and educational futures. The path forward lies not in a blind embrace of technology, but in a thoughtful and ethical integration that prioritizes both progress and humanity.
The New York legislature recently passed the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act (SB6953B) (“RAISE Act”). The bill awaits signature by New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
Applicability and Relevant Definitions
The RAISE Act applies to “large developers,” which is defined as a person that has trained at least one frontier model and has spent over $100 million in compute costs in aggregate in training frontier models.
- “Frontier model” means either (1) an artificial intelligence (AI) model trained using greater than 10°26 computational operations (e.g., integer or floating-point operations), the compute cost of which exceeds $100 million; or (2) an AI model produced by applying knowledge distillation to a frontier model, provided that the compute cost for such model produced by applying knowledge distillation exceeds $5 million.
- “Knowledge distillation” is defined as any supervised learning technique that uses a larger AI model or the output of a larger AI model to train a smaller AI model with similar or equivalent capabilities as the larger AI model.
The RAISE Act imposes the following obligations and restrictions on large developers:
- Prohibition on Frontier Models that Create Unreasonable Risk of Critical Harm: The RAISE Act prohibits large developers from deploying a frontier model if doing so would create an unreasonable risk of “critical harm.”
- “Critical harm” is defined as the death or serious injury of 100 or more people, or at least $1 billion in damage to rights in money or property, caused or materially enabled by a large developer’s use, storage, or release of a frontier model through (1) the creation or use of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapon; or (2) an AI model engaging in conduct that (i) acts with no meaningful human intervention and (ii) would, if committed by a human, constitute a crime under the New York Penal Code that requires intent, recklessness, or gross negligence, or the solicitation or aiding and abetting of such a crime.
- Pre-Deployment Documentation and Disclosures: Before deploying a frontier model, large developers must:
- (1) implement a written safety and security protocol;
- (2) retain an unredacted copy of the safety and security protocol, including records and dates of any updates or revisions, for as long as the frontier model is deployed plus five years;
- (3) conspicuously publish a redacted copy of the safety and security protocol and provide a copy of such redacted protocol to the New York Attorney General (“AG”) and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (“DHS”) (as well as grant the AG access to the unredacted protocol upon request);
- (4) record and retain for as long as the frontier model is deployed plus five years information on the specific tests and test results used in any assessment of the frontier model that provides sufficient detail for third parties to replicate the testing procedure; and
- (5) implement appropriate safeguards to prevent unreasonable risk of critical harm posed by the frontier model.
- Safety and Security Protocol Annual Review: A large developer must conduct an annual review of its safety and security protocol to account for any changes to the capabilities of its frontier models and industry best practices and make any necessary modifications to protocol. For material modifications, the large developer must conspicuously publish a copy of such protocol with appropriate redactions (as described above).
- Reporting Safety Incidents: A large developer must disclose each safety incident affecting a frontier model to the AG and DHS within 72 hours of the large developer learning of the safety incident or facts sufficient to establish a reasonable belief that a safety incident occurred.
- “Safety incident” is defined as a known incidence of critical harm or one of the following incidents that provides demonstrable evidence of an increased risk of critical harm: (1) a frontier model autonomously engaging in behavior other than at the request of a user; (2) theft, misappropriation, malicious use, inadvertent release, unauthorized access, or escape of the model weights of a frontier model; (3) the critical failure of any technical or administrative controls, including controls limiting the ability to modify a frontier model; or (4) unauthorized use of a frontier model. The disclosure must include (1) the date of the safety incident; (2) the reasons the incident qualifies as a safety incident; and (3) a short and plain statement describing the safety incident.
If enacted, the RAISE Act would take effect 90 days after being signed into law.
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