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TRANSFORMING SPORT THROUGH RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING.
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Elizabeth Smith, RPL Department, University of South Africa, South Africa, Desiree Vardhan, South
African Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, (SASCOC) South Africa.
We submit this document as a Best Practice summary.
Content:
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TRANSFORMING SPORT THROUGH RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING.
There are more than 52 million South Africans in an area as big as Italy, France and Germany combined, of
which 25.2% are unemployed and have no recourse to post-school education.
SASCOC, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, views its social responsibility as a
deep commitment towards players, community members and students. According to the CEO of SASCOC, a
nation can have great talent, but without the means to discover, nurture and bring out its full potential, talent
counts for nothing (SASCOC, 2012). So SASCOC has taken up the challenge to develop a focused plan of
action for empowerment.(SASCOC, 2011).
RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) is an international initiative which has been eliminating unfair
discrimination in education for approximately 75 years (Smith 2004, Smith, 2014 forthcoming). In South
Africa, RPL is viewed as a transformational initiative and a tool for empowering a lost generation. It is widely
used in higher education, but few if any professional bodies internationally have utilised RPL for conferring
professional designations.
SASCOC (the only South African professional body for sport) has chosen RPL as a transformative initiative
although RPL is complex: it is not only a technical procedure, but one which entails complex epistemological,
pedagogical, cultural, andragogical and multilingual elements.
Based on international benchmarks and international consultation, SASCOC developed The South African
Coaching Framework and the South African Model For Long-Term Coach Development. These documents,
combined with generic learning outcomes formulated by the South African Qualifications Authority, form an
innovative RPL assessment strategy for sport; assessing the competencies of coach developers and coaches with
unlimited relevance across geographical areas, sports domains and levels. It uses a blended approach: assessing
theoretical knowledge as well as competencies on the field. Assessment occurs by competent assessors in a
cascaded approach: competent coaches at the most senior level (National Coach Education Advisors) are
included in the assessment of the next level (National Coach Developers), both groups in turn forming part of
the panel assessing the next levels. All assessments are overseen by a highly qualified team of assessors.
National consistency across sports domains is ensured by adherence to international criteria for the assessment
of prior learning.
Minimum levels of education or relevant prior competencies are stipulated for each level.
The SASCOC team is proud of its innovative approach to RPL, culminating in the conferring of professional
designations to competent sportspersons. We look forward to sharing our insights with international coaches.
SASCOC. (2011). The South African Coaching Framework. Melrose, Johannesburg: SASCOC.
SASCOC. (2012). Long-term Coach Development. South African Model for Long-term Coach Development.
Melrose, Johannesburg: SASCOC.
Smith, E. 2004. An RPL Strategy for South African Technikons. DLitt et Phil thesis, Rand Afrikaans University:
Johannesburg.
Smith, E. 2014. (Forthcoming). Are we there yet? Pretoria: Unisa.
----------------------------------------Elizabeth Smith (Dr). DLitt et Phil (2004).
Heads the Recognition of Prior Learning RPL) unit at UNISA (University of South Africa).
Specialisation Field: Inter-disciplinary RPL for direct access to Master’s and Doctoral studies.
20 years’ RPL experience: training workshops, 6 conference papers presented; 4 papers published; 2 articles
forthcoming.