Application for IAVET accreditation involves three stages:
If your school is interested in achieving accreditation, the Board encourages you to make contact with IAVET at the earliest opportunity. The Notification stage is a planning phase, enabling both your school and IAVET to prepare for the accreditation process. You will be asked to complete a simple form, setting out a brief outline of your programme and contact details for your school.
At this stage IAVET will establish contact with you and will discuss a suitable timescale for your full accreditation application and visitation. If, at this stage, it appears that you may need some development support, associate membership of IAVET may be offered to you. Associate membership is offered to developing schools for a period of up to five years alongside options for appropriate support.
When you submit your full application, you will be asked to complete an application form and to accompany this with written evidence showing how your school meets the accreditation criteria. The guidance notes with the accreditation form explain how to do this. Your application must be submitted electronically. This is primarily for ease of transmission to your visitors as your application is likely to include a significant number of supporting documents. However it will also assist you to produce translated versions of key documents (such as your curriculum and timetables) if these are not in English.
You must normally submit your full application eight weeks in advance of your visitation date so that visitors may review it and have an opportunity to ask you for clarification on any aspect of your application before planning their visitation agenda.
A team of visitors, normally chaired by a member of the Board, will evaluate your programme over a two-day site visit to your school premises. The visitation team will, wherever possible, include a visitor from your own country. During the visit, the team will:
After the visitation the team will provide a report to IAVET, along with a recommended accreditation status and details of any conditions to be applied. A detailed report will be sent to the school Principal once approved by the Board.