Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 26, 2007

NUNAVUT - Not all learning happens in a classroom.

That's why Nunavut Arctic College is challenging adult students across the territory to examine their skill sets and life experiences and gather them into a portfolio.

Since March of this year, the college has spearheaded the three-year Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition initiative, which will help students recognize all of their skills and have a product that they can share with potential employers.

"Prior learning assessment is the process of looking at a person's life experiences and figuring out the knowledge skills they've acquired," said Jennifer Archer, manager of the program.

From Oct. 16 to 19, adult educators from community learning centres across the territory met in Iqaluit for a portfolio development workshop. They learned how to create their portfolios through self-reflection and analysis of what learning came out of specific activities.

In these profiles students can include past experiences, training, certificates, achievements, family history, their relationship to the land, their place in their community's history and so on.

For example, the portfolio of someone who hunts could include skills related to navigating, tracking, firearm use and knowledge of weather patterns.

"People begin to look at themselves differently," Archer said.

"What you know is more important than where you learned it," she added, explaining that sometimes the most meaningful education happens outside of a classroom.

Qikiqtarjuaq adult educator Lizzie Aliqatuqtuq attended the workshop in Iqaluit and is in the process of creating a portfolio that she will be able to share with her students. She plans to teach portfolio development in her upgrading courses.

"It is a good opportunity to really focus on myself," she said. "I tend to forget about myself, my short-term goals and achievements."

Aliqatuqtuq said that she has a lot of digging up to do around her house, to gather items for her portfolio. "I think I'll never quit," she said.

In Taloyoak, adult educator Wade Morrison is teaching a class of nine adults how to make their portfolios.

"We don't really stop and think about things we've picked up over the years," he said.

When the records are complete, students will have something they can continually refer to and take to job interviews, he said.

After the program is introduced in the remaining 15 communities with learning centres, staff will be trained to assess portfolios for formal education equivalency or workplace experience.

Employers were introduced to the concept at three regional meetings earlier this year. They were receptive to the idea of recognizing non-formal learning, Archer said. That will help employers implement Article 23 of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement, which pertains to Inuit employment, she added.