RACC Articulation Framework

Registered Apprenticeship-College Consortium Articulation Framework
Goals
The overarching goal in creating the Registered Apprenticeship-College Consortium (RACC) is to
facilitate the articulation of the Registered Apprenticeship certificate for college credit on a
national scale. This effort will provide an important opportunity for apprentices to continue on
a career pathway and earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, creating a skills acquisition
continuum from Registered Apprenticeship to college with gainful employment. It also opens a
new pipeline of degree seekers that can help support the President’s goal that by 2020,
America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. As
important, the Consortium seeks to enhance the competitiveness of American businesses by
enlarging the pool of highly-trained workers that possess in-demand skills and competencies.
Additionally, the consortium hopes to:
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Strengthen relationships among Registered Apprenticeship and two- and four-year postsecondary institutions nationwide;
Facilitate the development of informed partnerships among Registered Apprenticeship
and two- and four-year post-secondary institution stakeholders that recognize the
resources, limits, and requirements of one another’s systems;
Enhance national understanding of, and response, to the needs of apprentices as
another working student population; and
Advocate for the flexibility needed to enable apprentices to earn credit for their
Registered Apprenticeship experience and pursue further credentials in post-secondary
educational programs, as well as utilize transfer opportunities to four-year universities
to earn bachelor’s degrees.

Principles
To achieve its goals, the Consortium is founded on a set of overarching principles that guide this
effort. Chief among these principles is a learner-centered focus on supporting the educational
and occupational needs of students- and the workforce skill needs of employers -that is
grounded in the context of lifelong learning and career pathway advancement. Recognizing
that learning and competency development take place through a wide variety of avenues,
including Registered Apprenticeship, the Consortium is committed to enhancing recognition of
apprentices’ prior and concurrent learning and valuing that learning for college credit in
credential-granting programs. Through member partnerships, the Consortium seeks to address
institutional and organizational barriers and create more seamless and mobile pathways from

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Registered Apprenticeship to programs of study at two- and four-year post-secondary
institutions.
The Consortium’s principles are agreed to collectively by the higher education community;
National Registered Apprenticeship sponsors; the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and
Training Administration, Office of Apprenticeship; and the U.S. Department of Education, Office
of Career, Technical, and Adult Education. The principles are drawn primarily from the
cumulative experience of educational institutions and Registered Apprenticeship programs that
have developed credit articulation agreements and have been judged successful in their work.
The principles embody a needed institutional flexibility with thoughtful development of
programs and procedures appropriate to the needs of apprentices, yet recognize the necessity
to protect and assure the quality and rigor of educational programs.
Principle 1. In order to enhance and to achieve their educational, vocational, and career goals
and minimize the need to repeat coursework, successful Registered Apprenticeship program
graduates should be able to receive appropriate college credit for prior learning obtained while
in Registered Apprenticeship programs.
Principle 2. To facilitate apprentices’ entry into two- and four-year post-secondary programs,
educational institutions should maintain necessary flexibility in:
 Programs and procedures, particularly in admissions, credit transfer, and recognition of
other applicable learning, including that gained through a Registered Apprenticeship;
 Scheduling and format of courses; and
 Academic residency requirements to offset apprentices’ mobility, potential isolation
from campuses, and part-time student status.
Principle 3. To ensure mutually-beneficial and productive partnerships, college and Registered
Apprenticeship program sponsor Consortium members should exhibit a clear understanding of,
and support for, their respective roles in articulation efforts.
Initial Conditions for Membership
Post-secondary institutional members must meet the following conditions:
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Be listed in the Department of Education’s Database of Programs Accredited by
Recognized U.S. Accrediting Organizations;
Be a degree-granting institution that is duly accredited by an institutional accrediting
agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education;
Agree to accept one another’s assessment of students’ prior learning for credit and to
honor one another’s credit awards, for purposes of facilitating the transfer of credit
between Consortium member colleges; and
Agree to provide program information for the RACC Guide.

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Registered Apprenticeship sponsor members must meet the following conditions:
 Have a national, regional, or local program, or national, regional, or local guideline
standards that are registered with either the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment
and Training Administration, Office of Apprenticeship or a State Apprenticeship Agency;
 Submit to a program review performed by a national, state, regional, or local
educational entity, for purposes of assessing program quality and rigor and determining
credit value for learning acquired during Registered Apprenticeship; and
 Agree to provide program information for the RACC Guide.
“Other “organization members must meet the following conditions:
 The organization or association must represent two- and/or four-year post-secondary
institutions on the national, regional or state level; or
 The organization or association must represent Registered Apprenticeship sponsors on
the national, regional or state level; and
 Organizations must serve in a coordinating role to facilitate membership in the
consortium.
Criteria
Inherent in the principles are expectations and standards essential to their translation into
performance and action. The RACC criteria express those expectations and standards and
constitute an operational framework for RACC member institutions to extend undergraduate
educational opportunities to apprentices that are sometimes distinct from common
institutional practice. The criteria characterize flexibility essential to the improvement of access
by apprentices to undergraduate educational programs. The criteria stipulate that institutional
policies and practices be fair, equitable, and effective to apprentices.
Criterion 1. Crediting Learning from the Registered Apprenticeship Certificate.
A RACC post-secondary institution provides processes to determine credit awards and learning
acquired for the Registered Apprenticeship certificate when applicable to an apprentice’s
degree program. A RACC post-secondary institution recognizes and uses the American Council
on Education (ACE) Guide or other third-party accreditation in determining the value of learning
acquired in a Registered Apprenticeship, and awards credit for appropriate learning acquired in
the apprenticeship at levels consistent with ACE Guide or other third-party accreditation
recommendations.
Criterion 2. Consistent Policies with Peer Colleges.
RACC post-secondary institutions that have not yet accepted credit awards for Registered
Apprenticeship certificates will adopt credit-awarding policies used for similarly situated
colleges, programs, degrees, accrediting bodies, and term lengths.

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Criterion 3. Transfer of College Credit.
Since mobility makes it unlikely that an apprentice can complete all degree program
requirements at one institution, a RACC post-secondary institution designs its transfer practices
for apprentices to minimize loss of credit and avoid duplication of coursework, while
simultaneously maintaining the integrity of its programs. It is recognized that RACC postsecondary institutions must maintain quality and integrity within a complex academic and
regulatory environment where resource, regulatory, and academic realities sometimes mitigate
against the broad spirit of flexibility that the RACC advocates. Consistent with this reality and
with the requirements of an apprentice’s degree program, a Consortium institution follows the
general principles of good practice outlined in the Joint Statement on the Transfer and Award
of Credit. Each institution may be required to submit documentary evidence that it generally
accepts credits in transfer from other accredited institutions, and that its credits in turn are
generally accepted by other accredited institutions.
Criterion 4. Academic Residency Requirements.
A Consortium institution limits academic residency requirements for apprentices to no more
than 25 percent of the undergraduate degree program; recognizes all credit course work
offered by the institution as applicable in satisfying academic residency requirements; and
allows apprentices to satisfy academic residency requirements with courses taken from the
institution at any time during their program of study, specifically avoiding any “final year” or
“final semester” residency requirement, subject to stated requirements in specific course areas
such as majors. If a RACC institution offers 100 percent of an undergraduate degree online,
that institution may require apprentices to take 30 percent of that degree program to obtain
residency.
Criterion 5. Crediting Extra-Institutional Learning.
Recognizing that learning occurs in extra-institutional and non-instructional settings, a RACC
institution provides processes to evaluate and award appropriate undergraduate-level credit
for such learning through practices that reflect the principles and guidelines in the statement
on Awarding Credit for Extra Institutional Learning. This shall include awarding credit through
use of one or more of the nationally-recognized, non-traditional learning testing programs
provided for apprentices including the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), DANTES
Subject Standardized Tests (DSST), and Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) whether or not
they supplement institutional challenge examinations or test-out procedures.

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