How American University of Cairo Won An IACET Award
With the increase in the number of institutions offering continuing education programs, serious and professional institutions seek accreditation from various reputable bodies in order to:
- enhance their reliability,
- increase their market share, as well as,
- achieve widespread recognition among peer institutions of their brand name and quality offerings.
The accreditation of the American University in Cairo’s School of Continuing Education (SCE) by IACET had a significant impact at both the systemic level as well as on all SCE programs, clients and learners. On the systemic level, we now a clearly documented policies and procedures manual that includes all our key processes which has helped us dramatically improve our efficiency and effectiveness. Obtaining the IACET accreditation and reaccreditation signifies that we have a high quality system and this is based on an assessment carried out by an international independent body of quality assessors.
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This has had a positive impact on our learners as they are assured that they will receive an education which is balanced and meets international standards of integrating high content quality and professional relevance together with practical and hands on experience that meets the needs of the workplace. From the point of view of the market, employers are also assured that SCE learners have taken programs that equip them with the latest content and skills needed.
One of the drivers of quality in SCE is IACET’s accreditation process itself which has an internal review or audit required to be conducted annually. Therefore, in order to maintain our IACET accreditation, SCE strives to continuously improve its systems and programs benchmarked to international standards.
Impact of the IACET Award Received
On September, 27, 2015, SCE received the IACET Exemplar Training Organization Honorable Mention Award from the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). The award was for the new Logistics Management Program that SCE launched in 2015. The IACET Awards receptions took place in Chicago, Illinois (USA).
After announcing the award on SCE’s website and posting the ceremony photos, the learners in the current classes of the Strategic Procurement and Logistics Management Career Certificate felt very proud to be enrolled in a program that received international recognition. We also used this recognition as a marketing tool to attract new learners to the program.
Another impact of the receiving this award is that it raised awareness about IACET and CEUs (continuing education units). Our current learners raised many questions about IACET and the value of having internationally recognized CEUs. In response to these queries, the Career Development Department at SCE gave an orientation about CEUs and its benefits by using the “Who accepts CEUs” section on IACET’s website. The learners, both continuing and new, showed high interest in knowing more about the organizations, universities and educational institutes that accept CEUs. This has made a remarkable difference on the number of inquiries the department receives daily on the Logistics Management program as well as all other certificates.
Now that the first cohort has completed their certificate, the learners are confident that they made the right decision by joining SCE’s Strategic Procurement and Logistics Management Career certificate. Moreover, they are now interested in obtaining certificates from educational institutes adopting the system of assigning internationally accredited CEUs.
Amira El-Deeb is the Assistant Director of The Career Development Department at The School of Continuing Education (SCE), The American University in Cairo (AUC). Amira has 16 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, Management, Supply Chain and Training. She holds Bachelor's in Pharmacy, MBA in Supply Chain Management and Logistics and is currently enrolled in Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA). Amira is the program designer of Career certificate in Strategic Procurement and Logistics Management which received IACET Exemplary Mention Award in 2015.
Contact details:
Email: aeldeeb@aucegypt.edu
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Address: 24 Falaki St., Bab El-Louk, Cairo, Egypt