Turn Your Experience Into College Credit
Your military service, workplace training, professional certifications, previous college coursework, and other college-level learning may already qualify for academic credit. Charter Oak State College's Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) program helps you save time, reduce costs, and earn your degree sooner by recognizing what you already know.
Make Your Experience Work Toward Your Degree
Credit for Prior Learning can help recognize the college-level learning you have already completed.
Graduate Sooner
Reduce the number of courses you may need to complete.
Lower Your Costs
Earning credit for prior learning may help reduce your total educational expenses.
Receive Credit for What You Know
Your training, credentials, military service, and documented college-level learning may count.
Focus on What Comes Next
Spend more time learning new material instead of repeating what you already know.
Search Our Credit Recommendations
Charter Oak has reviewed many professional credentials, workplace training programs, and other learning experiences to determine whether they meet college-level learning standards. Search our database to see whether your prior learning has already received a credit recommendation.
Ways to Earn Credit for Prior Learning
College-level learning can come from many sources. Explore the options below to learn how your training, credentials, military service, examinations, and documented experience may qualify for credit.
Professional Credentials
Certifications, professional licenses, and industry credentials may qualify for college credit through Charter Oak's Credit for Prior Learning program.
Workplace & Professional Training
Training completed through employers, academies, professional organizations, or other approved providers may already have a credit recommendation.
Military Training
Military courses, occupations, and documented training may qualify for college credit through evaluation of your official military transcript.
Credit by Examination
Demonstrate college-level knowledge through approved standardized examinations, such as CLEP and other recognized testing programs.
Portfolio Assessment
Document college-level learning gained through professional, volunteer, military, or life experiences by demonstrating how your knowledge meets the learning outcomes of a college course.
Search Reviewed Credit Recommendations
Search Charter Oak's database of previously reviewed organizations, certifications, licenses, academies, and training programs to see whether your learning has already received a credit recommendation.
Real Students. Real Progress.
Charter Oak students have used exams, professional credentials, workplace learning, and portfolio assessments to reduce the time and cost of completing their degrees.
“Convenient, simple, fast and free.”
“CPL is one of the reasons I've been able to avoid college debt.”
“I was one step closer to earning my degree.”
Why Choose Charter Oak for Credit for Prior Learning?
Charter Oak has extensive experience helping adult learners turn college-level knowledge gained outside the classroom into meaningful progress toward a degree.
Request InformationBuilt for Adult Learners
Charter Oak’s flexible programs and services are designed around the needs of working adults balancing education, careers, and family responsibilities.
Multiple Ways to Earn Credit
Students may demonstrate college-level learning through reviewed training, professional credentials, military experience, examinations, portfolios, and other approved methods.
Personalized Academic Guidance
Academic advisors can help you understand your options and determine how prior learning may fit within your degree requirements.
Credit Connected to Your Degree Plan
CPL is evaluated within the context of your academic program so you can understand how awarded credit may help you move toward graduation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn more about how Credit for Prior Learning works, when to explore it, and how previously acquired learning may apply toward your degree.
Credit for Prior Learning, or CPL, is college credit awarded for college-level learning acquired outside a traditional college classroom.
That learning may come from professional training, military service, certifications, licenses, examinations, workplace experience, independent learning, or other documented experiences.
Credit is awarded for the learning you can demonstrate, not simply for the amount of time you spent working or participating in an activity.
Charter Oak may evaluate college-level learning demonstrated through:
- professional licenses, certifications, and credentials;
- military training and occupational experience;
- workplace and professional training;
- standardized examinations;
- portfolio assessment;
- previously reviewed courses or training programs; and
- other documented learning that corresponds to college-level coursework.
Different types of learning require different documentation and evaluation methods.
No. Work experience by itself does not automatically result in college credit. Credit may be awarded when you can demonstrate that the knowledge gained through your experience is equivalent to the learning outcomes of a college-level course.
In some cases, your employer training, academy program, professional credential, or other learning experience may already have been reviewed. In other cases, you may need to document your learning through a portfolio or another approved method.
The way CPL credit applies depends on your academic program, degree requirements, and the type of credit awarded. Credit may apply toward a major requirement, general education requirement, elective requirement, or another part of your degree plan.
Speak with an academic advisor before beginning a CPL process to determine how potential credit may fit into your program. Credit cannot be awarded twice for the same learning or duplicate credit you have already earned.
Explore CPL as early as possible in your educational planning. Identifying potential credit early may help you avoid enrolling in a course that covers learning you can already demonstrate.
An academic advisor can help you review your previous education, training, credentials, military experience, and other learning before you finalize your course plan.
The amount of credit available depends on the learning being evaluated, the documentation provided, applicable credit recommendations, and how the credit fits into your degree program.
Some previously reviewed credentials and training programs have established maximum credit recommendations. Search the Credit Recommendations table to see whether your organization, certification, license, academy, or training experience is already listed.
A credit recommendation does not guarantee that every recommended credit will apply to your specific degree requirements.
Costs vary depending on the CPL method used. For example, examinations, credential reviews, portfolio assessments, and other evaluation methods may have different fees.
Review the current undergraduate or graduate fee information in the College Catalog and speak with an academic advisor before beginning the process.
Prospective students can begin by searching the Credit Recommendations table and requesting information from Charter Oak.
Current students should speak with their academic advisor before submitting documentation or beginning a portfolio. Required CPL forms and manuals are available through MyCharterOak under Student Self Service.