Credit for Prior Learning - A Lifeline for Women Like Kathy

Credit for Prior Learning: A Lifeline for Women Like Kathy

Kathy, a 57-year-old dental assistant and educator, has dedicated her life to caring for others—her patients, her students, and her children. A single parent who worked three to four jobs to make ends meet while helping put her children through college, Kathy has no retirement savings and rents rooms in her home to stay afloat. Now, she’s looking ahead to a more stable future by becoming a full-time dental educator at a community college, where five years of service could qualify her for a public retirement system.

There’s just one hurdle: she needs an associate’s degree. While Kathy has decades of professional experience, licensure, and continuing education in dental assisting and education—including prior training at a proprietary school—her formal academic transcript doesn’t reflect the depth of her knowledge.

That’s where Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) comes in. CPL evaluates and awards college credit for learning gained outside the traditional classroom—including professional experience, certifications, and volunteer work. It allows students like Kathy to avoid repeating what they already know, significantly cutting the time and cost of a degree.

With her current workload, Kathy simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to take a full course load. CPL might be the only path that makes her goal possible.

Kathy’s story is far from unique. A landmark study of over 465,000 students found that those who received CPL were 17% more likely to complete a credential. For women from low-income backgrounds, the benefits were especially significant—yet they remain underrepresented among CPL recipients.

Time and cost savings were substantial:

• 9 to 14 months shaved off the time to credential

• $1,500 to $10,200 saved in tuition and fees

CPL doesn’t just recognize past learning—it accelerates the future. For adult women entering or returning to STEM Career Pathways, CPL is a powerful recruitment and retention strategy. It honors the full range of their lived experience and removes unnecessary barriers to economic mobility.

As I work with Kathy to document her skills and build her CPL portfolio, we’re reminded that for many women, CPL is not just a benefit—it’s a lifeline.

CPL is also a strategy for recruiting women (and men) to STEM Career Pathways. I will keep you posted on how things go for Kathy as I help her on this journey.

P.S.: There are still spaces left for my Recruitment Master Class in June: Boosting STEM & CTE Enrollment. Register Now!