Persons in ministry who do not have a relevant SAQA recognised, qualification, may also apply for a professional designation. In this case it will be done through a process of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). RPL towards a professional designation is done based on evidence of a person’s years of ministry experience. Qualifications and other training that are not SAQA recognised are also taken into account for the purposes of RPL. To apply for a designation through RPL, an RPL application form needs to be completed and submitted together with the General ACRP (CGMP or CMTP) Application Form, the relevant supporting documentation and proof of payment of the fees.

For RPL towards a designation under CGMP or CMTP, there are two different RPL application forms:

• ACRP (CGMP or CMTP) General Application form: to apply for the designation of Religious Practitioner (for more detail see Level 1 under “Affiliation of persons”)
• Advanced RPL Application Form: to apply for the designations of Advanced Religious practitioner, Religious Professional or Religious Specialist (for more detail see Level 2-4 under “Affiliation of persons”

Note: See also the notes above under the description of Level 4 affiliation.

The RPL application process is as follows:

• In short: a person with less than six years of formal ministry experience should apply for affiliation as Religious Practitioner (thus complete the General ACRP (CGMP or CMTP) Application Form; a person with more than six years of formal ministry experience should apply for affiliation as Religious Practitioner (thus complete the General ACRP (CGMP or CMTP) Application Form and the Advanced RPL Application Form.
• Persons who apply via an intermediary organisation have to follow the guidelines as agreed between ACRPP and organisation. (An intermediary organisation is an organisation who has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with ACRP, and who facilitates the application of persons related to the intermediary organisation. The exact way in which the facilitation of the application process is done will be as agreed in the MoU.) Read more about intermediary institutions and their affiliation with ACRP.

Note: As part of the CGMP or CMTP Advanced RPL Application Process, the applicant has to submit a set of prescribed examples of ministry outputs. These are identified in the Advanced RPL application form and serve as the “board examination” for persons who do an Advance RPL Application. There is also an alternative for submitting the examples of ministry outputs, namely to do bridging courses on four of the “board examination” themes as identified in the CGMP and CMTP Advanced RPL application form.