iFTI’s COE Reaffirmation
Since its initial accreditation in 2017, the iFTI has worked to comply with the conditions and standards of the Council on Occupational Education (COE) to maintain a high level of quality and continuous improvement as a post-secondary occupational institution. In 2022, the COE revised its handbook to include a Handbook of Accreditation for Registered Apprenticeship Schools and National ERISA Training Institutes. The iFTIs accreditation began with the Associate Instructor Program, and shortly thereafter in 2018, added a few more requirements to establish the Master Instructor Program.
Since 2017, the iFTI Curriculum Team has compiled annual reports and shared them with the iFTI Occupational Advisory Committee, and has attended COE Conferences to learn more about accreditation and how best to maintain it to benefit the students in the iFTI Instructor Training Program. The bulk of the process focused on completing a Self Study Report. The self study guided us through a thorough written analysis of how we meet the 10 Standards of Excellence and the conditions outlined by the Commission of the COE. The team gathered exhibits and examples of how we meet the standards and organized them for sharing with our visiting COE team. In addition to the written requirements, the iFTI team organized and attended ISC site visits with the COE team leader and members, planned a welcome reception where they were able to meet and greet many of the faculty and staff of the iFTI, and meet with instructors and leadership of the IUPAT/iFTI. They also received a tour of our Hanover campus and general location, as well as the opportunity to observe training and education in action during that week.
The reaffirmation visit during the week of October 23rd concluded with no findings of non-compliance by the COE team leader. Further feedback and final accreditation status will be announced by the Commission by the end of this year. The iFTI had many takeaways during this self analysis and will incorporate some changes to processes and communications to ensure that we are providing the utmost quality in our educational and training programs, and continuously striving for self improvement that will benefit not only our instructor development, but also create job satisfaction which can lead to higher retention rates, improved recruitment, and more effective marketing and organizing as a whole.
