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Chapter Five Less formal records and recognition without accreditation
The National Record of Achievement ( NRA), which has evolved into Progress File also gives scope to record non-formal learning and is capable of giving recognition of a kind to part-time employment. However the record here would be a personal account which might be supported by a teacher, but would not involve either assessment or validation.
In Scotland the idea of giving recognition to non-formal learning has been a matter of discussion and research from time to time over the past 30 years or more. The earliest work identified in the survey (although not yet sourced) was a profiling project ( Profiles in Practice) undertaken by SCRE in the late 1970s/early 1980s, but efforts were also made within some areas of Standard Grade development (notably in English) to capture relevant non-formal learning and bring it within the scope of formal assessment.
More recently, SQA has been considering the development of profiles of the kind cited in Model 3 ( Annex 1) and progress in this field will be important in further developing that model.
The review did find one case where the authorities were tackling the issues of part-time employment directly, however, and the approaches adopted there will be further explored in this component of the research. The answer may be at least partly in a very simple approach. In New South Wales the issue of part-time employment has been tackled head on and a web-site has been developed by the Department of Education and Training which encourages young people to undertake part-time employment and gives advice on how to get the maximum benefit from doing so. It encourages planning and negotiating among other things. This will be further investigated as a new model or part of the existing Model 5 ( Annex 1).
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