Accreditation Tip of the Month - After Accreditation, What Comes Next?
Your organization has passed the site visit and you get that exciting email:
On behalf of the IACET Accredited Provider Commission, I am pleased to inform you that YOUR ORGANIZATION has been approved as an IACET Accredited Provider. IACET is the premier standards-setting organization for continuing education and training. Our strategic mission is to promote IACET standards as a benchmark for quality program delivery. IACET Accredited Providers are an elite group of educators dedicated to quality in continuing education and training. Consumers trust the IACET CEU because they know that the Accredited Providers’ processes must follow the ANSI/IACET Standard for Continuing Education and Training and have been thoroughly assessed by a third party.
This is not the end however, but merely the beginning of your relationship with IACET. For the application to have been successful, you had to provide important documentation to show compliance. This continues on an annual basis as long as you are an accredited provider. You will need to submit documents and answer questions to maintain your status as an Accredited Provider.
In the first year you shared with IACET your organization’s policies, processes and evidence that met the ANSI/IACET standard earning you the accredited provider status. In years 2, 3, and 4 you will be asked to submit an annual report along with the annual dues of $985. As a part of the annual dues and annual report, you will be asked to complete your member profile and update the staff associated with the IACET account and update any administrative details that might have changed in the past year. As a part of the annual Report you will be asked:
- How many CE/T events has your organization conducted during the past 12 months
- How many participants have been served by your organization's CE/T events in the past 12 months?
- How many learners were awarded IACET CEUs in the past 12 months?
- What is the total number of IACET CEUs that were awarded in the past 12 months?
Substantive Changes to Organization, Responsibility, and Control
- Has there been any change in the mission or objectives of the CE/T unit?
- Has there been any change in the management of the program or CE/T unit?
- Has there been any change in the outsourcing or subcontracting of any of your organization's CE/T services (e.g., content development, instructional delivery, online capabilities, etc.)?
- Has your organization been acquired by or merged with another organization?
You will also be asked to submit:
- Documented review process to ensure the quality of the overall CE/T program and the consistent application of the Standard to include all categories and elements.
- A completed signed and dated checklist, such as the Self Audit Checklist or other tool.
Then in year 5 you will be asked to reaccredit to the ANSI/IACET standard. This process has been simplified greatly and will be reviewed in the next month's blob post. This is the 5-year cycle of accreditation. The annual report is an important part of the reaccreditation process.
Put the anniversary date of your accreditation into the organization’s calendar to ensure that this reporting does not get missed. Paying the annual dues is just one part of maintaining your accreditation. Reporting on annual basis is the other. Pulling the information you need to answer the reporting requirements will take time as will putting the report together. Questions asked include verifying the accounts associated with your organization’s profile as well as completing your organization’s profile. This means that the:
- Provider Name has been provided
- Primary Address has been provided
- Primary Phone Number has been provided
- Provider's Website has been provided
- Target Audience set
- Provider has a substantive description (at least 25 words)
- Provider has uploaded a logo
- Provider has linked to at least one social network
- Provider has specified at least one industry
- Provider has specified at least one delivery method
Having this information on the IACET website enables IACET to publicize the relationship and your accreditation. With a completed profile, those seeking CE/T professionals and organizations will be able to find you easier on the website. The data that you provide helps IACET to benchmark across industries and sectors and gives valuable information for further standards development. IACET wants you to also publicize your achievement and gives a live certificate code to embed in your website that will show your learners the commitment to quality accreditation brings.
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About the Author
Teri Laliberte, MA is IACET's Director of Accreditation and Special Projects. Teri's work with adult learners as a trainer, teacher and mentor spans more than 25-years. The early part of her teaching career was spent teaching English (ESL) internationally. After earning a Master’s in Applied Linguistics, she lived in Turkey and Poland teaching at the University level. Teri served as Director for English as a second language programs with the University of Cincinnati, Northern Illinois University (with ELS Language Centers) and as a District Director oversaw the programs at many more partner universities. While partnering with Universities she worked with the language programs involving a number of accrediting organizations. Moving from the academic world to the association world she developed a train the trainer program and worked to standardize the training for her former employer, The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE,) in addition to developing a global trainer program. Teri can be reached at tlaliberte@iacet.org.