Certification vs. Accreditation

1
Certification vs. Accreditation

• Certification and accreditation are often used
  interchangeably
• They belong to the same category but there is
  distinction between the two

2
Certification

• Certification is used for verifying
• It is a third party attestation related to
  products, processes, systems or persons
• Certification is a process that publicly attests
  that a specified criterion of quality or standard
  has been achieved or it has exceeded
• Certification is not just granted to institutes
  or bodies but to individuals as well.

3

• Personnel
• it verifies that personnel have adequate
  credentials to practice certain discipline
• Products
• products meet certain requirements of quality
  standards
• Companys context
• which a company gets registered or approved to
  standards like ISO and others

4

• Most renowned and primary body for certification
  is ISO
• A lot of diverse standards have been developed by
  ISO which covers almost every field

5
Accreditation

• A voluntary process initiated on its own by
  institutes, agencies, and educational programs
• It starts with a rigorous self evaluation of the
  processes by the institute itself
• Then there is an objective appraisal that is
  conducted by the certified bodies
• It emphasizes on the fact that quality standards
  are being met and the practices are at par with
  global standards

6
Major Accreditation Bodies

• CHEA
• DETC
• IAO