Accreditation of work experience

Accreditation of work experience is one option for completing your studies through employment or voluntary work. Accreditation of work experience means recognizing the skills and knowledge you gain by working during your studies as ECT study credits. Accreditation of work experience is primarily for recognising work completed during your studies. You can also seek accreditation for voluntary work. Work to be accredited must be approved in advance, before the work is undertaken. For this reason, you can not apply for accreditation retrospectively. Students enrolled in Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes at Humak and Open UAS students are eligible to apply for accreditation of work experience.

What is accreditation of work experience?

With accreditation of work experience, you will have the opportunity to gain a wealth of knowledge and wide range of skills needed in the workplace. To support you in your work, you will acquire a foundation of knowledge that you can immediately put into practice by carrying out the tasks set out in your accreditation plan. You should meet all course learning objectives during the accreditation period. 

It is possible to apply for accreditation of work experience for all Humak courses except compulsory courses (also listed as such in the RPL process). Practical training periods can also be credited via accreditation of work experience. See below for a list of the courses where accreditation of work experience cannot be used.  

The work must follow your learning plan and occur within the timetable of the course. You may complete accreditation of work experience more than once, but consecutively not simultaneously.  The accredited work should be at least 50% of the credit hours of the course (1ETC = 26.6 hours) and should not exceed the total credit hours of the course.

The following courses from Humak degree programmes cannot be credited:

2018-2023 Curriculum:
Professional Development 5 ECTS
Study Skills 5 ECTS 
– Finnish Language and Communication 5 ECTS 
– Development Methods 5 ECTS 
– Development Practices 5 ECTS
– Thesis 15 ECTS

2023-2028 Curriculum:
Professional Literacy 5 ECTS 
Career Planning 5 ETCS 
– Study Skills and Digital Competencies 5 ECTS
– Community Educators’ Professional Competencies 10 ETCS
– Approaches of Research-based Development 5 ECTS 
– Thesis 15 ETCS

Please note that Humak reserves the right to determine course delivery for courses with a work-based component involving the entire class. Courses that cover safety information essential for the degree may also be exempt from work accreditation.  

Unlike Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), with accreditation of work experience, you must seek prior approval to undertake the learning opportunity. Unlike practical training, a student undertaking accreditation of work experience does not require supervision in the workplace. Humak provides guidance as part of the course. There is an assumption that students undertaking accreditation of work experience are capable of completing the work and do not require extra workplace supervision.

The course lecturer is responsible for accreditation of work experience and will assess accreditation tasks. The RPL process is supervised by a student’s PSP coach.

  1. The accreditation of work experience process is initiated by you. Read the accreditation instructions in the course guide in Hoodle and contact the course lecturer. An accreditation plan is made on each course’s Hoodle.
  2. Familiarise yourself with the learning outcomes of the course. Identify tasks in your work that would be suitable for accreditation.
  3. The duration of the accredited work experience should match the course credit hours. The accredited work experience should be completed within the timeframe of the course. If tasks are not submitted in time, the student must re-enroll in the course and gain approval for accreditation.
  4. Create your accreditation plan and submit it on the course Hoodle. The accreditation plan form can be found on the Forms page of the Student Guide. If the course is not running at the point when you want to create your accreditation plan, contact the course lecturer.
  5. Carry out your work in accordance with your accreditation plan and timeline.
  6. Complete the accreditation task. This will most likely be a course assignment. It may also be another task agreed on with the course lecturer at the planning stage.
  7. Submit the accreditation task following the course instructions. Submit a self-evaluation along with your accreditation task. Evaluate your performance on the course learning outcomes on a scale of 1-5. The lecturer will assess your performance in the course based on course grading scale and record your results in Peppi.

Administrator of the page: Johanna Henriksson, Helka Luttinen,
Last modified: January 2, 2024