Employers in the food processing industry have indicated difficulty in hiring workers with the necessary skills, as well as difficulty in determining if particular training programs (whether offered by publicly funded educational institutions or private education/training providers) meet industry requirements. The accreditation program provides a way of evaluating the many training options offered to the industry, as well as a more reliable measure of the skills/competencies possessed by graduates from these programs.
Accreditation is the process whereby an association or agency grants public recognition to a school, institute, college, university, or specialized program of study having met certain established qualifications or standards as determined through initial and periodic evaluations.
Accreditation can help industry mitigate risks when addressing training requirements. While accreditation can’t guarantee training outcomes, it can serve as a signal for quality when making decisions over which courses, programs and providers to engage.
Generally, certification programs require that individuals present evidence of some combination of defined education/learning and demonstrated performance/experience in order to gain the credential. Accreditation is a means of determining if particular training courses/programs satisfy the learning requirements of the credentialing scheme.
