ACBSP IMPACT

“In today’s rapidly changing business environment, certificates are increasing in popularity. For example, if a business owner cannot find qualified employees, perspective job seekers can obtain those skills through tailored and market-driven certificates. With a certificate, someone can demonstrate they possess certain knowledge and competences desired by the employer.

To help meet these market demands, companies and universities are partnering to create customized education tools. ACBSP is helping to lead this initiative as the first business accreditor to offer certificate accreditation by providing the validation for exceptional quality education through certificate accreditation.

Interest was evident with the high attendance turnout at the recent ACBSP webinar, Introduction to Certificate Accreditation. This session is still available to watch in the webinar portal
at acbsp.org.

The ACBSP Accreditation Governance Board (AGB) has been working toward continuous improvement with this process, which is easier to obtain than one might believe. Current ACBSP members with accredited programs should note a recent change. Certificates are accredited if the certificate curriculum meets the following criteria:

Certificate curriculum includes 75 percent or more content from the accredited business program’s curriculum. For example, for a certificate in human resource management:

Certificate curriculum is:

Three classes from an ACBSP accredited management degree. One class from an ACBSP accredited business administration degree. That equals 12 credit hours.

The certificate is ACBSP accredited. “There is no additional cost to accredit these certificates, and we are optimistic the program will be beneficial in your pursuit of a vision to provide quality, relevant and current business education.”