Future Ready Oregon Year One Report Highlight

Future Ready Oregon Credit for Prior Learning Program

Previously we shared about the Future Ready Oregon Investment in Postsecondary Career Pathways and the Prosperity 10,000 program.  This week we are highlighting another program within the Future Ready Oregon Year One Report - Credit for Prior Learning. 

Future Ready Oregon (SB 1545, 2022) allocated $10 million to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) to administer the Future Ready Oregon Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) grant program. These funds were awarded to public higher education institutions to expand credit awarded to students from priority populations for learning they gained outside of colleges and universities that contributes to an employment-related credential. Section 8 of the legislation specifies:

“The Higher Education Coordinating Commission shall establish a grant program to award grants to community colleges and universities that work toward increasing opportunities for students from priority populations to receive academic credit for prior experience or skills gained outside of traditional higher education institutions, with such academic credit counting toward a certificate or credential that provides a pathway to employment or career advancement. In administering the grant program under this section, the commission shall consult with employers and targeted industry consortia to develop uniform standards that may be used to certify whether a student’s technical competency, qualifications, knowledge, or skills are sufficient to earn a certificate or credential recognized by a targeted industry sector.”

CPL is not new Oregon’s public postsecondary institutions. ORS 350.110 (HB 4059, 2012) directs the HECC to work with the state’s public, independent non-profit, and for-profit postsecondary institutions to increase the number of students awarded high-standard, academic credit, especially as it applies to a postsecondary credential; expand the number and type of high standard academic credit that can be awarded; create clear policies and methods for awarding credit and improve the practice of these; create means to expand expertise about prior learning credit within and among institutions; develop articulation agreements as needed, and define and track measures of progress.

The Future Ready Oregon legislation provided one-time funds to create the capacity needed to expand CPL opportunities to Oregonians. HECC’s Office of Community College and Workforce Development administers the Future Ready Oregon Credit for Prior Learning Program.

In the summer of 2022, the HECC issued a request for applications (RFA) to Oregon’s seventeen community colleges, seven public universities and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) to award grant moneys to create and expand CPL opportunities in higher education. Of the 25 public postsecondary institutions that were eligible for the funds, 14 community colleges and 5 public universities applied. 

The HECC awarded funds to all institutions that applied, allocating the entire $10 million of general fund grant dollars. The HECC finalized execution of those contracts in late September, and early October.  

• A full list and description of proposed Credit for Prior Learning activities can be found here​
• For more information on the early implementation of the Future Ready Oregon Credit for Prior Learning Program see the Future Ready Oregon Year One Report