Candidates who complete RPL smoothly and candidates who stall differ in one respect: the first group treated evidence gathering as a defined task with a checklist, and the second treated it as something to worry about. The work is the same either way.
Start from the criteria, not from your records
The instinct is to gather everything you have and hope it covers the standard. Work the other way. Take the performance criteria, list them, and against each one write what evidence you could produce. The gaps become visible immediately, and you spend your three weeks closing them rather than photocopying documents nobody needed.
The four evidence types
- Work history — contracts, appointment letters, salary records, service certificates, work permits
- Performance — photographs and video of you working, samples of what you produced, customer feedback
- Third party — statements from supervisors, employers, colleagues or clients
- Existing learning — short-course certificates, in-house training records, transcripts
On third-party statements
These are the most valuable and the most often mishandled. A useful statement names the specific tasks you performed, the period, and the writer's basis for knowing — not a general character reference. Give your referee the criteria and ask them to speak to the ones they observed. A vague letter of praise carries almost no assessment weight.
If you have almost nothing in writing
This is common and it is not disqualifying. Informal work rarely leaves a paper trail. In these cases the portfolio leans harder on performance evidence you create now — video of you performing the tasks, work samples produced under observation — and on third-party statements from people who can attest to your work. Your assessor will tell you at the portfolio review stage exactly where the shortfall is and what will close it.