Who is a PLAR Practitioner?

A PLAR Practitioner is defined as "An individual who utilizes learner-focused activities to advise, and formatively or summatively assess an individual's prior learning either for academic credit or recognition of occupational and/or professional competence, and/or who assists in the development of the PLAR system" (CAPLA Benchmarking Study 2000). However, anyone who uses PLAR in their work, whether paid or volunteer, may practice PLAR as part of their job. In many instances an individual will not have PLAR listed as one of their job responsibilities, but will use the principles, process and resources to assist the in their roles. They may be employment or career counselors, education faculty or administrators, human resource people in business or industry, or supervisors or managers of an organization or institution. In short, anyone who makes use of PLAR becomes a PLAR Practitioner . . . or practices PLAR.

If you review the competencies listed under About PLAR Practitioners, you will see that the core competencies and many of those competencies identified for the role of Advisor, Assessor and Facilitator cross over to many positions in the workplace. This is why PLAR is important to a great many individuals and organizations.

The competency listing is a base document that is available for discussion and feedback by all those involved in the practices of PLAR.