This week the IACD Accreditation Working Group held its first meeting. The Working Group, chaired by Training, Publications and Professional Development Committee chair Anna Clarke, also includes Middle East and North Africa Board member Maryam Ahmadian, North American Board member Greg Wise, Past President Charlie McConnell, Colin Ross from Scotland, Anastasia Matvievskaya from Georgia and Cornel Hart from South Africa.
The Working Group has been remitted by the IACD Board to explore the potential and opportunities for IACD itself to establish an International Accreditation role following the adoption and publication of the International Standards for Community Development Practice last June.
At its first meeting, the Working Group confirmed its remit, which is to:
- Establish clarity in relation to key terms such as ‘accreditation’ ‘endorsement’ ‘badging’ and so on.
- identify and examine options for IACD in relation to accreditation of CD courses, including: models of accreditation, endorsement, badging; roles (for example, being an accrediting body or supporting others to undertake this role);
- consider the resource implications, requirements and and income generation potential for models identified
- consult with IACD members to seek their views on a potential accreditation role for IACD
- report to the Board in June 2019 with proposals for consideration and inclusion within IACD’s new Strategic Plan 2020-2024.
The Working Group has agreed to meet once or twice a month between January and June. The chair outlined the main tasks to be undertaken in order to produce the report for the IACD Board, including factoring in time for member consultation.
Its first task will be to establish international clarity for our field in relation to key terms such as ‘accreditation’ ‘endorsement’ ‘recognition’ ‘badging’ etc, by producing an IACD glossary of terms. In addition the group will gather together information on how existing national endorsement bodies work in terms of accrediting CD professional qualifying courses and identify and examine options for IACD in relation to accreditation of CD courses, for example, being an accrediting body or supporting others to undertake this role. There was agreement within the Group that whatever role IACD might take on should complement and not duplicate the work of national endorsement bodies.
The Working Group will also with gather together comparative information on whether and if so, how other professions accredit their professional education and training at an international level. The Working Group shall report regularly to IACD members via the new dedicated page on the website https://www.iacdglobal.org/standards-accreditation/
If any IACD members have suggestions to make, examples to share, please send ASAP to the chair anna.clarke@iacdglobal.org
