Martin Otieno

Martin Otieno works as the administration and finance officer for the African Community Development Foundation, a non-governmental and not-for-profit charitable organisation established in 1999 to work within the public policy environment to provide a strong support infrastructure to promote community development, tackle deprivation and build lasting and sustainable capacity for self-reliance within African communities.

Not having had the opportunity to attend high school when younger, he welcomed the opportunity to further his education and to use his experiences as a vehicle for entry via AEL.

He put together an AEL application for exemption from the first year of the BA Social Enterprise based on his experiences in life and in working in the voluntary sector; ‘for the first time I found that my experience was relevant to the programme’.

Putting together his AEL application helped him prepare for the demands of study and writing assessments – he comments that following many years out of education, he thought that he would have no idea about where to start when faced with the challenge of writing a 3000 word essay.

The support he received and writing his AEL application enabled him to get ‘warmed up’ for that challenge. He is delighted that the programme has enabled him to not only improve his own perspectives but also to fulfil his aspirations in community leadership and help others to develop their aspirations; ‘community leadership is about changing lives’. Martin is extremely positive about his experiences and finds that the academic experience complements his previous life and work experience and ‘fills the gaps’. It has enabled him to see things from different perspectives. Martin aims to use the knowledge and skills gained from his degree to set up a social enterprise that can act as a model.

Marie Bolton

Marie Bolton is undertaking a postgraduate programme in psychology and chose to study at UEL because of its open and flexible approach, which she finds refreshing. She gained exemption from a module on the professional doctorate using a combination of her previous education at undergraduate and postgraduate level and her professional experience.

She tells of the process that she went through:

"First I looked at the learning outcomes of the module I wanted to claim credit for.

Then I wrote a mini essay which outlined my experience, reflected on what skills and knowledge I had gained through it, and explained how this matched the learning outcomes of the module. I also wrote about what I hoped to achieve in the future.

Finally, I constructed a matrix table to demonstrate how my learning matched each of the learning outcomes in the module, with evidence mapped against each learning outcome. This evidence included information about my earlier degrees, academic transcripts, work references and documents I had written as part of my job."

Now in the second year of the programme, Marie has contributed to the enhancement of the student experience for herself and others by acting as the student represetative for her programme.