RPLO for all?

I recently attended a one-day conference organised by Prof. John Konrad and hosted by the Newcastle College's Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training. - A quick note of thanks to the in-house caterers - 'Wow! Thanks for a really 5-star buffet lunch!'

The meeting was well-attended, to capacity, and delegates came from a variety of backgrounds, all experts in their own fields. I will not here pre-empt the proceedings which, I anticipate, will be published shortly. Click here for the RPLO website. However, two observations I feel are worth noting:

Firstly as every speaker presented their case and throughout the several discussions I repeatedly felt, sentence by sentence, that the real solution to the documentation, justification for a learner's RPLO, the ability to better provide for inclusion etc were all best able to be resolved through the medium of an e-Portfolio system such as eFolio. In simple terms, eFolio allows the learner to express themselves as they choose through any form of media, page organisation or choice of 'cosmetic' features.

One of the points which really attracted my attention was the statement:

The RPLO Project will pilot these Guidelines in the Vocational Education and Training [VET] Teacher and Trainer Sector using the Lifelong Learning UK Standards through the development of user-friendly tools, methods and support materials.

Wow! I thought, just the sort of project for which I want eFoilo to be the solution!

However, in retrospect, is not the recognition of prior learning what any teacher does anyway? Apart from any formal qualifications that a student might have acquired, is it not just plain common sense to find out more about a student's background, their personal learning styles, their interests and hobbies etc? So, returning to the title, 'RPLO for All?' I wonder if the lessons learnt from this pan-European exercise will help to reinforce good practice throughout all sectors of education?