CQUniversity senior lecturer Dr Roslyn Cameron is the only Australian board member of an international research centre based in British Columbia, Canada, which is dedicated to research on RPL (recognition of prior learning).

The Prior Learning International Research Centre (PLIRC) is based out of Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC.

Dr Ros Cameron (bottom left) with other PLIRC board members and SUMMIT presenters from a range of countries

Dr Cameron, the Head of Discipline for HRM at CQUniversity, has been a PLIRC board member since 2009 when the research centre was established, along with other board members from OECD/France, UK, Scotland, South Africa, USA and Canada.

All board members were funded to attend and present at a recent SUMMIT 2013 Conference in Canada. Dr Cameron spoke on Recognition of prior learning (RPL) and human resource management: Learning from Downunder.

"SUMMIT participants were very interested in the use of RPL as human resource practice in industries across Australia and especially those partnerships between VET providers, industry, government and unions," Dr Cameron says.

PLIRC was awarded a very competitive research grant from the Canadian government to put on the conference in conjunction with BCPLAN, a group of educators, employers and unions from throughout BC who are developing a Province-based strategic plan for RPL (or as the Canadians call it PLAR!).

PLIRC was awarded the research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC), the federal funding agency for university-based research and graduate training in the social sciences and humanities in Canada.