8TH National TVET Forum

December 11-12, 2008

SEED PAPER
THIRD PARTY ACCREDITATION - ASIA PACIFIC ACCREDITATION AND
CERTIFICATION COMMISSION (APACC)
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction – This provides information on the mandate of the APACC. The functions,
benefits, clarification on the definition of Accreditation, the TVET institutions as area of
evaluation, characteristics of APACC accreditation, and the member countries are fully
discussed here.

Situation and Current Developments – This reflects the historical background,

objectives and functions, organization and staffing, funding, establishment of Website,
Web-based survey instruments, and the published handbook for Accreditors.

Issues, concerns and implications – This is a discussion of the challenges

confronting the APACC, which provides insight on the different scenario that may
happen which could be arrested to harmonize implementation of programs.

Conclusion and recommendations – Presents the picture of recommended activities

based on the discussed situation, current developments, issues, concerns and
implications.

INTRODUCTION

The Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC) is a regional

accreditation and certification body established by Colombo Plan member governments
which recognize the need to cope with the rapid changes in the labor market and skills
taught in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions.

The implementing Agency for accreditation is sheltered under the Colombo Plan Staff
College for Technician Education. The staff college is envisioned to be a center of
excellence for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Asia and the
Pacific region.

The formation of APACC was in an International Conference and Certification in

December 2004 at Seoul, Korea. This was reinforced by a regional workshop on
“Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors” in August 2005 at
CPSC, Manila, Philippines to fortify the APACC accreditation criteria and instruments.

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The Functions: APACC shall perform the following:

1. Conduct accreditation and certify the accreditation status earned by TVET

institutions in Asia and the Pacific Region.
2. Develop accreditation criteria, evaluation instruments, processes and protocols for
the accreditation of TVET institutions.
3. Establish linkages or partnership with national accrediting agencies of member
countries.
4. Recruit, train, retrain and develop a pool of Accreditors on a full-time or on-call basis.
5. Directly provide services or seek other sources of funds and resources to carry out
the program of accreditation and certification.
6. Be a source of “good practices” for the promotion of quality in TVET systems.

Benefits of APACC Accreditation – APACC accreditation is an internationally

recognized sign of quality. Accreditation institutions and stakeholders enjoy the following
benefits:

1. Greater workforce mobility and mutual recognition of qualifications in Asia and the
Pacific region;
2. Quality and employable workforce in member countries through APACC coordination
among its network of institutions, agencies and other stakeholders;
3. Employer confidence on the selection of employees coming from accredited
institutions. Accreditation status is important to employers when evaluating
credentials of job applicants and when deciding to provide support for current
employees seeking further education;
4. International recognition of the institutions’ quality, accountability, and public trust;
5. Eligibility and reliability of TVET institutions for funding support from donors and
other lending agencies;
6. Part of a regional network of quality institutions that expand schooling and learning
opportunities for students; and
7. Transferability of credits earned by a student among educational institutions is of
great importance. Receiving institutions take note of whether or not the credits a
student needs to transfer have been earned from an accredited institution.

Definition of Accreditation

Accreditation is viewed as both a process and a status. It is a process, which a TVET

institution evaluates its operations and programs, seek an independent judgment to
confirm that it substantially achieves its objectives, and is generally equal in quality to
comparable institutions or programs.

As a status, it is a formal recognition granted by an authorized accrediting agency to an

institution or program as possessing certain standards of quality as defined by the
accreditation agency.

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The TVET Institution as the unit of evaluation.

There are varieties of accreditation models. The most common are institutional and
program accreditation. An Institution refers to a center, institute, school, college or
university in its totality. In contrast, an academic program refers to group of related
courses, packaged in a curriculum and leading to a certificate, diploma or degree.
Initially, APACC will conduct institutional accreditation of TVET institutions of higher
technical and non-degree technical education, and vocational training in Asia and the
Pacific Region.

Characteristics of APACC Accreditation – APACC Accreditation may be characterized in

the following manner:

1. It is voluntary on the part of the TVET institution that may want to be accredited;
2. It adopts the APACC accreditation criteria as defined;
3. It is a partnership endeavor between APACC and the applying institution;
4. It is governed by openness and transparency;
5. It is a form of regional regulation as value-added dimension to augment self-
regulation and/or national government regulations;
6. It is aim at continual improvement leading to excellence;
7. It conducts external evaluations through APACC Accreditors; and
8. It accredits the TVET institutions, which are accredited by recognized accrediting
bodies at the national or sub-regional level.

CPSC/APACC Member Countries:

1. Afghanistan 8. Japan 15. Palau Hon. Member

2. Bangladesh 9. Korea 16. Papua New Guinea
3. Bhutan 10. Malaysia 17. Philippines
4. Fiji Islands 11. Maldives 18. Singapore
5. India 12. Myanmar 19. Sri Lanka
6. Indonesia 13. Nepal
7. Iran 14. Pakistan

SITUATIONER/CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

1. The basis for the formulation of APACC is the 2003-2008 CPSC Corporate Plan
approved by the CPSC Governing Board. Goal 1, strategy 1.2 of the Corporate Plan
states “to facilitate the capacity building to develop accreditation and Certification
System for the Asia Pacific Region in TET” is the mandate that leads series of
conferences on accreditation and certification.

2. APACC is a new unit of the CPSC, headed by a Director who will be directly under
the supervision of the Director-General. The Director shall be responsible in directing
the day-to-day activities of the Commission. Branch units will be established in the

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 different member countries. A National Coordinator on Accreditation who will
represent APACC in the concerned country and prepare plans for accreditation shall
head these in-country units of APACC.

3. The funding of APACC in the first two years of operation (2005-2007) shall be
bankrolled by CPSC. By 2008, APACC will be self-financing by collecting fees for
accreditation services it will render to beneficiaries with possible subsidy from CPSC
to support its operating cost.

4. The APACC website is http://apacc.cpsctech.org established by squadron of

dedicated information experts, which will be a repository of information about
APACC and its accreditation system.

5. APACC has a developed Accreditation Manual that serves as primary reference for
an accreditation review and evaluation of technical institutions. This is ready in both
prints and web-based versions.

6. Web-based Survey Instrument is an interactive instruments developed to permit an

applicant institution to prepare and submit accreditation materials online. This survey
instrument helps facilitate the transfer of documents and data through electronic
means rather than manual compilations. Much of the survey is conducted Offsite
thru the use of this tool, the on-site survey is limited in length and scope.

7. A Handbook for Accreditors is crafted to provide guidance and training to Accreditors

and serves as main reference for APACC accreditation system.

ISSUES, CONCERNS AND IMPLICATIONS

1. The challenges confronting standardization- The nature of the accreditation system

in the Asia Pacific region is widely diversified which when not addressed can be a
major impediment for quality assurance. Accreditation procedures, policies and
decisions are contrasting issues such, as “one size fits all”; institution versus
program; and inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes as bases of standards.

How will APACC promote quality by remaining diverse on one hand and convergent
on the other? With these challenges, APACC has to promote convergence of
standards to a certain degree, while at the same time structure diversity in such a
way as not to trample upon the national practices. It will institute a process of
partnering with national accrediting bodies with a track record of quality,
effectiveness and trustworthiness in their works.

2. The rationalization of education in Asia and the Pacific – to meet the needs of the
student, technical education extends beyond the brick-and-mortar traditional settings
to the click-and-mortar innovative settings or any other form of online, web-based
and non-residential attendance programs. Another issue on the rationalization of
education is earning the equivalent credit points from one institution in one country

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 to another institution in another country. What would be the stand of APACC in
evaluating these contrasting types of technical education systems?

3. Education is being commercialized – commercialization may refer to the use of new

electronic technology, the merging of for-profit and not-for-profit educational
organizations, and for-profit subsidiaries of non-profit and not-for-profit operations. It
raises issues about regionally accredited but nationally visible institutions, providing
on-site and distance education programs across regions. As Eaton (2001) puts it,
“commercialism” challenges accreditation whether these new commercial cultures
can produce quality and under what conditions.

4. The expanding boundaries for institutions, courses, and programs operating in

several countries, students moving among countries to complete their education,
creation of virtual institutions that exist mainly for international purposes, and
government interests in further controlling higher education as an item of trade and
commerce is a potent issues to look into. This scenario poses challenges to APACC
to examine what it means to take institutions, programs, and quality review systems
designed for domestic consumption into an international arena.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The current developments on the situation, issues and concerns, and implications
facing APACC as stated in the previous pages of this paper, it attempt to demonstrate
how member countries with differing culture and orientation, and education and training
standards come together and organized one accrediting commission. While not all
institutions in the member governments will adopt the APACC accreditation system, it
will resume gaining its legitimacy and continue with its operational activities through
strong linkages and networking, and feedback systems. Likely, it will face the challenges
on several issues such as universalization, diversification, commercialization and
internationalization. Purposive orientation, massive advocacy, and accreditation to
different stakeholders and partners, APACC will prove that accreditation and certification
can lead to quality in technical education.

The status of accreditation is not uniform in many countries of the Asia and Pacific
Region. The absence of formal accreditation system at the national level makes it
challenging to get a clear picture about how quality is assured at both the institutional
and program levels. The regional system would provide a mechanism for improving the
quality of training and facilitate the exchange of skilled personnel and instructors.
Potential centers of excellence could be identified through the introduction of the
regional accreditation system. These centers will be institutions of international
standard, providers of instructor training and focal points in the region.

The acceleration of labor force movements and across border migration is very evident
at this point in time as shown by widening wage differentials, fast expanding market
economy and cross border trades, and growing flows of foreign direct investment. There

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are often no avenues for employing skilled/ semi skilled workforce legally for non-
existence of mutual recognition of qualifications between different TVET institutions in
the Asia and Pacific region. Lack of transparency and comparability in skill testing and
certification arrangement also hampers effective cooperation in skill formation in the
region. There is an urgent need to develop a regional accreditation and certification
framework with the ultimate goal to facilitate the mobility of educated workforce among
the countries of the Asia and Pacific region.

With the establishment of a regional accreditation system, it is recommended that the

following tasks would be looked into for the strengthening of the evaluation criteria and
the accreditation as a whole system:

 Develop a common unified approach or framework in formulating guidelines for

regional accreditation and certification system while respecting the diversity and
cultural background of the countries;
 Evolve uniform accreditation criteria/standards for key occupational areas in the
region;
 To harmonize as Asia-Pacific TVET Institutional and Specialized Program Standards
and establish a unified Regional TVET Model;
 To generate support for member countries which have no local accreditation bodies
for TEVT from those who have strong national accreditation board, thereby
promoting mutual benefits for global socio-economic development;
 To act as bridge for local standards to attain international standards suited to Asia-
Pacific resources, environment, values, tradition and culture;
 To certify competent workforce and assure their qualification for mobility while
meeting the needs of other countries within and outside Asia and the Pacific Region;
 Facilitate exchange of skilled personnel and mutual recognition of qualifications;
 Encourage cooperation in employment promotion;
 Establish a regional labor information network; and
 Encourage exchange of experiences and sharing of best practices in the region.

The Japan and Korea mutual recognition of qualification in the field of Information
Technology is a model to emulate between and among countries.

Accreditation Fees

 Application Fee - PhP 10,000

 Accreditor’s Fee - Php 7,500
 Membership Fee - PhP 5,000

The reference materials in the preparation of this seed paper are the following:

Proceedings of the inter-governmental workshop on regional accreditation modeling and

accrediting the Accreditors; 2007 Handbook for Accreditors; Asia Pacific Accreditation and
Certification Commission pamphlet; The CPSC Quarterly – the official news magazine of the
Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education; Frequently Asked Questions about
CPSC; The Accreditation Instrument, APACC; The Accreditation Manual.