ANSI to Launch Certificate Accreditation Program
November 25, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
| |
| Tools for Engineers |
IHS sells flexible standards collections and software to maximize your workflow.
To learn more, and for a free quote, please complete the form below. |
|
| |
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) issued a call for assessors and committee members to lead a new accreditation program for organizations that issue demand-based education and training certificates to U.S. workers.
Currently, there is no nationwide regulation, oversight or monitoring consistently applied to all bodies that offer certificates - nor is there a nationally recognized set of criteria/requirements to evaluate the quality of these programs, according to ANSI.
In May 2007, ANSI formed an advisory panel of industry and government leaders to examine the quality and content of training programs that lead to a certificate and the need or demand for accrediting these programs.
"Based on the input received, we believe this new accreditation program will help to educate the public on the meaning of certificates, the difference between certificates and certifications and how to differentiate among certificate programs with varying levels of rigor," said Dr. Roy Swift, ANSI program director.
"This activity is also expected to provide quality benchmarks for the design of future certificate programs."
The ANSI program will also follow the evaluation process outlined in International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 17011 - General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies.
This process includes using specially trained assessors to review documents submitted by applicants against defined requirements, conduct on-site assessments of all applicants and make recommendations to ANSI's Certificate Program Accreditation Committee that is responsible for making the accreditation decisions.
To this end, ANSI is seeking nominations from national experts in the fields of training, education, personnel certificates, federal, state and local government and policy development for consideration as assessors and members of the Certificate Program Accreditation Committee.
Source: American National Standards Institute (ANSI).