College Credit Recommendation
College Credit
- What is the ACE College Credit Recommendation Service?
- Who Can Participate in the Program?
- How Are Courses Evaluated for ACE/CREDIT?
- What are the Benefits of an ACE Credit Review?
- What is the Registry of Credit Recommendations?
- Who Accepts ACE Credit Recommendations?
- Who Who has ACE CREDIT Recommendations?
- What is the University of Wisconsin-Extension's Role?
What is the ACE College Credit Recommendation Service?
The College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT™) is a national program of the American Council on Education (ACE) that evaluates workplace education and training programs and recommends appropriate college credit levels. This service gives employees an opportunity to earn college credit for workplace learning.
Who Can Participate in this Program?
Training programs offered by business and industry, labor unions, professional and voluntary associations, government agencies, and trade, technical and business schools may be evaluated for college level equivalency.
Courses are eligible for ACE evaluation if the course content, learning methods, and assessment procedures are comparable to learning offered in similar college courses.
How Are Courses Evaluated for ACE/CREDIT?
A team of reviewers - usually three college/university faculty with content expertise appropriate to the training program - uses ACE guidelines to review
- Course content and learning outcomes
- Teaching materials and methods
- Procedures for assessing student performance and
- Administration of the program.
The evaluation usually takes place on-site (where courses are offered) and includes dialog with training program staff and administrators. The review team decides, on a course-by-course basis, whether to recommend credit equivalency and the appropriate levels - Vocational Certificate, Lower Division Baccalaureate/Associates Degree, Upper Division Baccalaureate, or Graduate.
What are the Benefits of an ACE Credit Review?
ACE college credit recommendations provide:
- National recognition for your education/training program
- Significant cost savings by reducing the need for tuition-reimbursement dollars
- An avenue for acceptance of your courses at over 1200 colleges across the country
- An opportunity to establish ongoing partnerships and joint programs with Wisconsin colleges
- A structured mechanism for receiving objective feedback on your courses and training program
- A way for your employees to accelerate their work towards undergraduate or graduate degree completion, while saving time, energy, and money, and
- A sound way to retain valuable employees, who rate educational benefits as more important than childcare, flextime, and family leave.
What is the Registry of Credit Recommendations?
ACE operates the Registry of Credit Recommendations, a transcript service for organizations and learners participating in the CREDIT? Program. The registry offers students a lifelong, permanent, computerized record of all courses they've completed that bear an ACE college credit recommendation.
Employers can use the ACE transcript to evaluate requests for promotions and upgrades during performance reviews. For colleges and universities, the ACE transcript provides documentation of college-equivalent courses the student has completed, increasing the likelihood colleges will award credit for prior learning experiences. Employees/students no longer need keep track of all their training certificates. And, they have access to their records, even if they change jobs or the employer relocates.
Who Accepts ACE Credit Recommendations?
More than 1200 colleges and universities nationwide have agreed to consider awarding credit to adult learners who complete training programs reviewed by ACE. These colleges and universities are listed in the ACE National Guide to Educational Credit for Training Programs.
All institutions have policies on accepting non-traditional credit; most colleges and universities appreciate the opportunity to review ACE student transcripts, which provide a helpful means of documenting college equivalent prior learning experiences.
Acceptance of ACE credit recommendations is at the discretion of the institution and may also depend on the policies of specific academic departments, schools, or colleges. Students should consult with advisors at the college or university where they seek admission to discuss which ACE credit recommended courses may be applied to their chosen course of study.
Who has ACE CREDIT Recommendations?
Hundreds of national organizations have ACE CREDIT recommendations. Some examples include
- American Institute of Banking
- Insurance Institute of America
- Bell Atlantic Corporation
- Daimler Chrysler Corporation
- Delta Airlines
- Lucent Technologies
- McDonald's Corporation
- New Horizons Computer Learning Centers
- U.S. Department of the Navy
- U.S. Postal Service
In Wisconsin, several companies have already received ACE CREDIT recommendations
- Certified Employee Benefit Specialist Program
- Credit Union National Association
- TechSkills (Brown Deere)
- Trane (La Crosse)
- Wisconsin Electric
- Wisconsin Public Service Corporation
How Can the University of Wisconsin-Extension Help You?
As the ACE State Affiliate, the University of Wisconsin-Extension is available to help you obtain credit recommendations for courses you offer. Services we provide include:
- Answering questions about the application and review process
- Linking organizations with experienced consultants to assist in preparation of materials for an ACE course review
- Coordinating the review for your organization
- Identifying and recommending qualified faculty who could serve as ACE reviewers
- Brokering partnerships and alliances between colleges, universities, and Wisconsin business and government organizations
- Conducting annual "update audits" of Wisconsin organizations with ACE credit-recommended courses
- Advocating for adult learners and promoting acceptance of ACE college credit recommendations among the higher education community in Wisconsin
- Conducting informational meetings and workshops about the ACE College Credit Recommendation Service
- Linking Wisconsin to the national ACE College Credit Recommendation Service
For more information contact:
Kay Taube, Assistant Dean
Continuing Education, Division of Outreach & E-Learning Extension
University of Wisconsin - Extension
505 South Rosa Road
Madison, WI 53719
(608) 262-7277
FAX (608) 262-8205
taubeks@conted.uwex.edu