Institution & Professional Body Accreditation
Colleges, universities, membership bodies and sector institutes run development programmes at scale. Accreditation makes those programmes verifiable to everyone outside the institution.
What is institution accreditation?
Institution accreditation assesses a college, university, professional body or membership organisation and the structured CPD it delivers to members. It covers governance of the learning programme, subject expertise, and record-keeping, and results in a public register listing alongside individually accredited activities.
Why institutions are assessed differently
A membership body issuing CPD to ten thousand members is not doing the same thing as a training company selling a course. The risk is systemic rather than per-activity: if the governance of the programme is weak, every certificate it produces inherits the weakness. So we assess the machinery as well as the output.
What we assess
- Governance — who signs off learning content, and against what criteria
- Subject expertise — the credentials behind the programme, not just the brand
- Programme structure — coherent pathways rather than an accumulated catalogue
- Records — how member completion and hours are tracked at scale
- Currency — how content is reviewed as regulation and practice change
- Conflicts — separation between commercial sponsorship and learning content
What the institution receives
- Institution-level accreditation with its own number and register listing
- Individual accreditation of named programmes, each separately numbered
- The Accredo mark for prospectuses, member communications and tender documents
- Certificates members can present to a regulator or a future employer
- An annual review that keeps pathways current as roles change
Where accreditation is not the right answer
If your institution awards regulated qualifications, those sit with your awarding organisation and a national qualifications framework — not with us, and accreditation adds nothing to them. Institution accreditation is for the CPD layer that sits alongside, and we will say so plainly if that is not what you need.
What providers say
Our induction programme was always good; it just was not worth anything outside the building. Now staff leave with hours they can actually record.
Placeholder Name
People Director, Placeholder Group
South Africa
The assessment feedback was the useful part. Our first submission came back with three specific points about learning objectives, and fixing them made the course genuinely better — not just accreditable.
Placeholder Name
Head of Learning, Placeholder Training Ltd
United Kingdom
We accredit around forty courses a year. Every one gets read by a person, and we can point clients at a register entry rather than asking them to take our word for it.
Placeholder Name
Managing Director, Placeholder Academy
United Arab Emirates
Testimonials shown are placeholders pending customer sign-off.
Questions people ask about this
What is an accredited CPD provider?
An accredited CPD provider is an organisation whose credentials, subject expertise and learning design processes have been independently assessed and listed on a public register. Provider status is the gateway to submitting individual activities — it does not, by itself, accredit everything the organisation produces.
Is CPD accreditation the same as a qualification?
No. A qualification is awarded by an awarding organisation, usually sits on a national qualifications framework, and certifies a level of attainment. CPD accreditation is an independent quality mark applied to a learning activity. The two are complementary: qualifications establish entry to a profession, CPD evidences development within it.
Is CPD recognised internationally?
CPD is an internationally understood concept, but recognition is decided by the receiving professional body, not by the accreditor. Independently accredited activity with a verifiable number and a stated hours value transfers most easily, because the receiving body can confirm it without contacting the provider.
Running CPD for a membership body?
Tell us about the programme and we will scope what institution accreditation would involve.
Get in touch