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 of intent
If your school is interested in achieving accreditation, the Board encourages you to make contact with ACOVENE at the earliest opportunity.
The Notification stage is a planning phase, enabling both your school and ACOVENE to prepare for the accreditation process. You will be asked to complete a simple form, setting out a brief outline of your programme and contact details for your school. At this stage, ACOVENE will establish contact with you and will discuss a suitable timescale for your full accreditation application and visitation. If, at this stage, it appears that you may need some development support, candidate status of ACOVENE may be offered to you. Candidate status is offered to developing schools for a period of up to five years alongside options for appropriate support.
Full application and submitting
supporting evidence
When you submit your full application, you will be asked to complete an application form and to accompany this with written evidence showing how your school meets the accreditation criteria.
The guidance notes with the accreditation form explain how to do this. Your application must be submitted electronically. This is primarily for ease of transmission to your visitors as your application is likely to include a significant number of supporting documents. However it will also assist you to produce 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 so that visitors may review it and have an opportunity to ask you for clarification on any aspect of your application before planning 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.