Three cheers for the FAA Academy’s successful Council on Occupational Education (COE) accreditation effort! In 2019, members of the FAA Academy decided to pursue the task of obtaining accreditation from the COE. Accreditation is a status granted to an educational institution or program that meets or exceeds stated criteria of educational quality and student achievement. Accreditation by the COE is viewed as a nationally honored seal of excellence for occupational education institutions and denotes honesty and integrity in career and technical education.
The Council on Occupational Education is a national institutional accrediting agency recognized by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education to accredit postsecondary occupational education institutions. COE has been accrediting public and private institutions as well as federal training academies and Job Corps Centers for over 40 years. Accreditation and policy decisions of the Council are made by a 20-member Commission representing a cross-section of the education and business communities. Approximately 600 schools are currently in candidate or accredited status with the Council.
The goal of the FAA Academy was to gain accreditation from the COE by completing a laborious Self Study response to 10 sets of standards submitted by the COE that had over 233 specific criteria. Proof (exhibits) of the responses was also required. The COE FAA Academy’s Steering Committee coordinated with four Divisions within the Academy and communicated the necessary documents they needed to prepare. First, they would prepare for the required Self Study Report, and secondly, a COE representative site visit to the Center was part of the process as well. The representatives from the four Divisions within the Academy played a major part in the success of gaining this accreditation. Their contributions to the Self Study Report and the answers provided to the questions posed by the COE Accreditation Team during the site visit were significant.
The self-study report describes how the institution complies with the standards, conditions, and criteria for accreditation by the Commission of COE. It took 18 months of gathering the required information, but the team was able to develop a detailed, concise Self-Study Report, based on inputs gathered from the four AMA Divisions. The team also collected, and in some cases, developed the required exhibits needed to provide proof of compliance.
The COE Accreditation Team arrived at the FAA Academy for their site visit. The team consisted of five representatives from other government agencies who reviewed all of the Academy’s programs and services against the COE Standards, verifying that the Academy complied with the COE accreditation requirements. Under normal circumstances, a site visit would take upwards of 4 days to accomplish, but due to the concerted efforts and vigorous preparation by the Academy’s COE Steering Committee, the site evaluation team was able to complete the evaluation in under 10 hours.
The result of the COE Accreditation Team site visit indicated that the FAA Academy had only one minor finding out of 233 criteria; all of which, were a direct reflection of 36 months of meticulous preparation and execution of a well-thought-out plan for success (put into action by the COE Steering Committee).
Special thanks to the COE Steering Committee that performed well beyond expectations! The actions of this team demonstrated what could be accomplished when a team commits and focuses on efforts toward an attainable goal. The FAA Academy’s accreditation status by the COE is viewed as a nationally honored seal of excellence for occupational education institutions, and denotes the honesty and integrity of the program. The FAA Academy also received a commendation for its learning resources involving Air Traffic simulation capabilities and technical support.
Congratulations to the FAA Academy’s COE Steering Committee and for the support of numerous FAA Academy employees.
