What does Accredited Mean?

In educational terms accreditation means that the organisation providing the training /education and the accredited course have been approved by the awarding/examining body. The accreditation process is a formal one and ONLY those providers who meet the required standards will gain accreditation.


How do I know if a course is Accredited?

Some organisations may well provide 'certificates' and even 'assessments' for the courses they run -BUT that does NOT mean they are necessarily approved and accredited by an awarding body. The only way you can check is to ask the organisation the following question:

'Where will my certificate come from' - If they say it comes from them -then the course is NOT Accredited -if they say it comes from the awarding/examining body then the course is accredited. Examples of awarding bodies are:

CACHE

OCN

EDEXCEL

City & Guilds

BTEC

Why Is Accreditation Important?

Accreditation is very important for a number of reasons:

1. You will have much more credibility as a Maternity Nurse with a legally accredited Award. Also most agencies do not recognise unaccredited courses.

2. If you want to do some Further or Higher Education courses you need 'evidence of recent study' -this evidence can only be gained from accredited study -unaccredited study does not count.

3. You have the assurance that the course and organisation which are accredited have gained and maintain the highest standards and care enough to get themselves accredited.

4. As well as caring enough to get themselves accredited - the organisation and it's staff have the prerequisite experience and educational qualifications necessary to get the accreditation. It takes a considerable length of time and scrutiny to get accreditation.

Be careful when choosing where to spend your money on your courses -and if accreditation is important to you -then make sure the course you want to do is!!