Mphoweh: “It’s an exciting and reflective process that’s not just about showing what you know but also about how you learned it.”
Jude Mphoweh
To bridge this gap, he relocated from Ndop, a town in the northwest of Cameroon, to Montreal in 2018 to gain Canadian work experience and capitalize on the demand for skilled digital marketers.
In pursuit of certification, he enrolled in an SEO course at Dawson College but soon discovered that he possessed the digital marketing skills being taught. While Mphoweh managed to secure a position as a digital marketing manager in Montreal, he remained determined to formally validate his knowledge.
This pursuit led him to discover Concordia’s recognition of acquired competencies (RAC), a service introduced in 2021 to provide nontraditional learners with a pathway to validate their existing knowledge through higher education. Participants in the program are required to develop a portfolio showcasing the skills they've acquired and complete a case study to demonstrate their expertise.
Upon validation, they receive recognition for Concordia Continuing Education courses or programs, equivalent to the traditional courses in which they would have been enrolled.
“It’s an exciting and reflective process that’s not just about showing what you know but also about how you learned it,” Mphoweh notes. “You get to exchange with the program’s experts and find out if you’re up to the level that warrants the same credit as someone who underwent the traditional process.”
Through his prior experience in digital marketing, Mpoweh managed to validate the five courses comprising Concordia’s Diploma in Digital Marketing.
“This opportunity is great for people like me who have a lot of skills from practice that can inform theory,” explains Mphoweh, who now also works as a digital marketing lecturer. "It’s a big step for Concordia to recognize that learning doesn’t only happen in a classroom. Canadian diplomas have tremendous power and resonate more with employers, so this is going to be a game-changer."
Learn more about Concordia Continuing Education’s Recognition of Acquired Competencies (RAC) service.