Accreditation Tip - Self-Audits and Annual Reporting
Maintaining accreditation in the years between your initial accreditation and reaccreditation is a simple process; but if you were not the person who originally brought accreditation to your organization, the annual reporting can look overwhelming. Yet, maintaining compliance with the ANSI/IACET 1-2018 Standard for Continuing Education and Training during the five years before reaccreditation is an important part of being an Accredited Provider (AP).
SELF-AUDITS
No matter whether you are in the process of applying for first-time accreditation, performing your annual reporting or applying for reaccreditation, it is important to keep in mind that it is your organization that was and is being accredited and not your individual courses or learning events.
One of the processes that is evaluated at your initial accreditation is the process by which your organization conducts a regular self-audit or self-assessment. That process must include some mechanism by which your organization assures its continued adherence to the Standard. IACET provides a template for that, which can be downloaded HERE. The use of this checklist is not required but can used to ensure that your organization does have some record of having conducted a review of its adherence and conformance to the Standard.
Membership renewal is often the trigger for many APs to start the annual review process and may be written into the process your organization uses. 90 days prior to your anniversary date (membership renewal), IACET’s system automatically sends a renewal notice to the primary account associated with your organization. The system opens the annual report module for your organization to begin the input of the information requested at membership renewal and sends a notification email with the invoice for your annual membership dues ($985.)
The anniversary date is the time at which IACET requests evidence of the self-audit. Based on previous experience, if you find that the self-audit takes longer than 90 days to conduct, you don’t have to wait for the 90-day notice to start your self-audit. Since you know your anniversary date, you can plan based on that as your target completion date. Since the self-audit checklist follows the format of the Standard it gives you a clear process to follow, be sure to consider using it as a guide. The figure below illustrates what the self-audit checklist looks like and provides some tips on how to use the checklist.
The Action Needed/Taken column enables you to record notes about what actions need to be done to bring the organization in line with the Standard. Going through the process of a self-audit will also help you to identify which areas of the Standard you may need to remediate with your organization’s staff involved with IACET accredited policies and processes.
At the end of each category there is a section for the person who is completing the self-audit to sign. This formalizes the document and ensure a record is created for compliance purposes.
It is important to make sure these are complete as well. The commissioners who next look at your organization for reaccreditation will want to see that these have been signed and dated. Once completed, the self-audit can and should be converted to a PDF.
The next step in the process is to make sure that there is a documented process for the regular self-audit and compliance with the Standard. That documented process is also a part of the Annual Report and will need to be uploaded as well.
THE MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL PROCESS
Once you receive a renewal notice and it is before your expiration date, you should log into your account and click on number 1 below. That opens the membership module. When you are within 90 days of your renewal, the tab marked 2 will be visible. You can click on that to begin the renewal process.
Once you receive a renewal notice and it is before your expiration date, you should log into your account and click on number 1 below. That opens the membership module. When you are within 90 days of your renewal, the tab marked 2 will be visible. You can click on that to begin the
You will first be asked to complete your organization’s profile with IACET:
The questions you will be asked to verify are:
- Provider name.
- Primary address.
- Primary phone number.
- Provider's website address.
- 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.
The next step is to verify the accounts associated with the organization’s account. You can associate as many accounts as necessary, but you will need to designate a primary account holder. Membership benefits, such as discounts on purchases, as well as access to the portal, upcoming Connection Webinars, archived webinars and other protected resources are available to all employees of your organization.
- Primary Contact-One account is permitted to be the primary account and is the voting member for the organization, has full access to all organizational records, can manage other accounts, works with the accreditation application, receives membership renewal notices and manages the accounting.
- Secondary Contacts-Multiple accounts are permitted to be the secondary contacts. These accounts have full access to all organizational records, can manage other accounts, work with the accreditation application, receive membership renewal notices and manage the accounting.
- Billing Contact-One account is permitted to be the billing account. This account has full access to all organizational records, receives membership renewal notices and manages the accounting.
The next step in the process is to define what type of organization yours is and what is the ownership structure.
THE ANNUAL REPORT
Now we come to the Annual Report. There are a few questions here that must be answered, and it can help you to prepare by knowing what they are. IACET collects annual statistics of your organization and others. These questions are:
- How many CE/T events has your organization conducted during the past 12 months?
We are asking you to tell us how many learning events that carry CEUs are you offering each year.
- How many participants have been served by your organization's CE/T events in the past 12 months?
A participant is defined as a single individual participating in a single learning event. A person who participates in multiple learning events may be counted multiple times (i.e., once for each learning event in which the individual participated).
- How many learners were awarded IACET CEUs in the past 12 months?
A learner is defined as a single individual who may participate in either a single or multiple learning events. For this response, an unduplicated count (i.e., only count each learner one time) of the number of individual to whom IACET CEUs were awarded.
- What is the total number of IACET CEUs that were awarded in the past 12 months?
This number should be the sum of all the CEUs awarded to the comprehensive total of all learners for the past 12 months.
We recognize that changes may happen with your organization in the time between initial accreditation and reaccreditation. For this reason, we ask you to identify any 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?
For each of these, if you answer yes, we ask that you provide a brief explanation of the change and what prompted the change in the comment area below. Then, attach supporting documentation by dropping the documents in the box.
The next step in the annual reporting process is to adhere to the Standard’s requirement that the AP shall have a periodic internal review process that ensures adherence to the current ANSI/IACET 1-2018 Standard for Continuing Education and Training. A standard review process is required to ensure the continuous quality of the overall CE/T program, and the consistent application of the Standard. A completed checklist or other tool can be used to document compliance with the Standard.
To ensure that your organization is continuing to follow the ANSI/IACET Standard, you will need to upload a PDF of:
- A 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.
AND
- A completed, signed and dated checklist, such as the Self Audit Checklist or other tool. This can be the tool mentioned at the beginning of the article.
The second-to-the-last step is to complete an industry survey about your organization that contains questions around:
- Does your organization implement any competency-based training (CBT) programs?
- Where does your organization stand regarding implementation of a competency-based training (CBT) program?
- Does your organization use digital badges?
- Which instructional design model(s) does your organization use?
- When developing your learning events and organizing the instruction, which tools do you use most in your instructional design process?
- Has your organization implemented virtual reality technologies?
- Does your organization use social media in your learning events?
- Does your organization have a formal process for ensuring validity and reliability of assessments given to learners (tests, examinations etc.)?
- Does your organization make training available for instructors/trainers on adult learning techniques?
- Would you like more information about workshops and online events that help instructors master adult learning techniques?
- Do you teach international learners?
ANNUAL DUES
Once you have completed your Annual Report, you will be asked to pay your annual membership dues of $985. You will be able to open an invoice and download it if you need. You may pay online or mail a check to IACET headquarters.
IACET appreciates all the efforts you make in keeping your accounts with IACET current and all the work that goes into the Annual Reports. If you have any questions about this article or as you are filling out your self-audit or you Annual Report, please contact us at info@iacet.org.