Applying for accreditation
Application for ACOVENE accreditation involves three stages:
Initial notification of intent
Full application and submission
of supporting evidence
School visitation
Initial notification
If your school is interested in achieving accreditation, we encourage you to contact ACOVENE at the earliest opportunity.
The Notification stage is a planning phase that enables both your school and ACOVENE to prepare for the accreditation process. We will ask you to complete a simple form that provides a brief outline of your programme and your school’s contact details. At this stage, our team will establish contact with you to discuss a suitable timescale for your full accreditation application and visitation. If we determine that you need development support, we may offer you candidate status. This status allows us to support developing schools for up to five years while they prepare for full accreditation.
Full application
When you submit your full application, we will ask you to complete an application form and to provide written evidence showing how your school meets the accreditation criteria.
The guidance notes with the accreditation form explain how to do this. You must submit your application electronically. We require this primarily for ease of transmission to your visitors, as your application will likely include a significant number of supporting documents. However, it will also assist you in producing translated versions of key documents (such as your curriculum and timetables) if these are not in English. You must normally submit your full application eight weeks in advance of your visitation date. This allows the visitors to review it and to ask you for clarification on any aspect of your application before they plan their visitation agenda.
School visitation
A team of visitors, normally chaired by a member of the Board, will evaluate your programme over a two-day site visit to your school premises. During the visit, the team will:
- Meet teaching staff from the veterinary nursing programme
- Tour the school and its relevant facilities
- Meet students
- Meet senior educational staff, including the Principal
- Visit outlying teaching facilities (such as a farm or veterinary practice used for teaching) where relevant
- Review records and documentation relevant to the programme
- After the visitation the team will provide a report to ACOVENE, along with a recommended accreditation status and details of any conditions to be applied. A detailed report will be sent to the school Principal once approved by the Board.