I’ve worked with a number of clients this year who have incredible experience and skills, but have found their options are limited due to not holding a Level 8 qualification (equivalent to an honours bachelors degree).
Many of these individuals would consider re-entering education in order to gain these qualifications, but a 3 or 4 year full time degree is not an option for financial or other reasons.
This is why I’m eagerly following the Recognition of Prior Learning Project, spearheaded by the Irish Universities Association – which is aiming to “build a consistent and coherent approach to recognition of prior learning within and across the entire public higher education (HE) sector” (iua.ie)
What this will mean, is that individuals with sufficient and relevant experience will be enter into level 8 qualifications at higher stages – so obtaining a level 8 qualification may only take 1 year rather than 3 or 4.
There are some routes already open to candidates….Springboard is a great place to start looking. I recommend downloading the excel spreadsheet of courses available (as I find the search function hard going!). If you filter by level 8, 60 credits you get a list of options. Go and find the relevant entries on springboard for these courses to see entry requirements. Some require level 7 degrees, but some state they will consider applicants with “appropriate levels of recognised prior learning”.
This is a really exciting and positive start! Looking forward to seeing greater clarity and range of options for people looking to up skill later in life as this project continues.