Requirements

Accreditation and Other Review

NorQuest College is a Comprehensive Community College as defined by Alberta Advanced Education’s Six Sector Model. In addition to rules stipulated by the Ministry or institutional policy/procedure related to program review, in Alberta and Canada, regulated occupations have requirements for registration. This impacts institutions that offer related occupational programming.

According to Boyd (1973) there are five primary accreditation purposes:

1. as a public service
2. to promote institutional improvement and self-study
3. to improve and facilitate transfer
4. to increase standards in the profession and
5. as a means for employers to guage applicant quality.

While accreditation is voluntary, there are pressures to participate given competition for students in higher education, competition for work placements, competition for graduates seeking employment, and so on.

Accreditation involves scrutiny of the institution as well as the individual program and its curriculum. Accreditation reviews can both be an input to the curriculum development process (providing feedback for curriculum development and review) and an output of the curriculum development process (being viewed more as something to review and evaluate).

Accreditation regulations for an institution vary greatly based upon the occupation and province/territory. Detailed information about accreditation should be sought from the regulating body.

Regulated Occupations

For regulated occupations, qualifications are set out by provincial/territorial authorities (not employers), and an individual must be licensed or certified. Refer to the Government of Alberta's regulated occupations to find the appropriate requirements for registration. You may also want to search the Canada-wide Directory of Occupational Profiles. If the occupation is regulated, regulation information will present.

Detailed information about accreditation should be sought from the regulating body. 

References

Boyd, R. (1973). The development of accreditation and its influence upon curriculum development in higher education. Journal of Thought, 8(3), 188-196.