Our activities
IFCES’ key activities are to:
- support learning service providers who wish to obtain certification against relevant standards, especially ISO 29990 and related standards, by for example preparing certification guides;
- encourage certification and accreditation bodies to provide high quality conformity assessment
in respect of these standards by, for example:
- developing common procedures for certification related to ISO 29990
- sharing expertise and certification experiences
- training & supporting auditors;
- enable consultants to offer high quality advice and preparation for certification;
- promote professional exchange and development in areas such as:
- quality criteria and evaluation techniques in learning services
- the professional competences of teachers & instructors
- conformity assessment/audit methodology for education & training services.
IFCES’ meetings:
The Founder Members of IFCES regularly hold meetings to discuss the development and future direction of IFCES.
Inaugural meeting in Tokyo Japan on 11th June 2011
The Inaugural meeting was hosted by the Japan Association for Management of Training and Education (JAMOTE), which had proposed the creation of IFCES and functions as its secretariat. At the meeting, the representatives of the IFCES founder organizations signed the Memorandum of Co-operation and elected Kazuo Miyazawa (JAMOTE) as the Chair and Richard Rossner (EAQUALS) as the Vice-Chair. For the agenda of this meeting, please click here.
Second meeting in Wildau Germany on 8th December 2011
The second meeting was hosted by DeuZert Deutsche Zertifizierung in Bildung und Wirtschaft GmbH (DeuZert), one of the founder organizations. Lively discussion took place regarding IFCES’ infrastructure and its future activities. This was followed by two presentations on different certification schemes and practices in North America and Europe. For the agenda of this meeting, please click here.
Third meeting in Montreal Canada on 20th April 2012
The third meeting was hosted by Concordia University, another founder organization. This meeting featured three presentations by Dr. Manfred Schmidt (sikos GmbH), Dr. Vivek Venkatesh (Concordia Univ.), and Dr. Thomas Rau (RKW Berlin GmbH). These presentations focused respectively on the methodology for ISO 29990 audits, the comparative analysis of different certification schemes, and an auditor qualification and training program. For the agenda of this meeting, please click here.
Fourth meeting in Washington D.C. U.S.A. on 14th December 2012
The meeting venue for the fourth meeting was kindly provided by the American Councils for International Education. Dr. Vivek Venkatesh (Concordia Univ.) presented the results of the analysis on training needs for ISO 29990 auditors carried out by his graduate students. Following the presentation, the approach to conformity assessment for ISO 29990 was discussed. For the agenda of this meeting, please click here.
