The Open University (OU) is the UK's largest university, with over 200,000 people studying, part time and at a distance, a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and packs. Research and development carried out at the OU's Centre for Outcomes-Based Education (COBE), has provided a new way of enabling students to be accredited at higher education level for their learning in the workplace. This approach to the assessment of work-based learning (WBL) involves recognizing the learning that has taken place below higher education (HE) level and enabling students to achieve 30 credits at higher education level through specially designed assessment. WBL below HE level is represented in the UK by National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 3 qualifications, such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ's). This new assessment strategy, based on the theory of self-efficacy put forward by theorists such as Dweck (1999) and Bandura (1997), involves mapping learning outcomes from relevant NQF level 3 qualifications onto the generic learning outcomes for 30 credits of work-based learning at higher education level. Students who have completed this conversion course are therefore in a good position to further their studies at higher education level. (Contains 1 table.)