AATD - Accrediting Alliance for Training and Development

As a private, independent accrediting agency, the Accrediting Alliance for Training and Development (AATD) specializes in the accreditation of training and consulting firms in the human resources development field, training departments, corporate colleges and corporate universities as well as trainers, consultants and business coaches.

AATD accreditation is a status granted to institutions and individuals who meet or exceed the stated criteria of educational quality. The purpose of accreditation is to foster quality, integrity and excellence in training and development worldwide through research, education, competency-based quality standards and criteria and guidelines for assessing educational effectiveness.

With the major trend toward non-traditional and innovative training and development, accreditors should not look at the easily assessable quantitative factors (participant-trainer ratio, classroom size, etc) but the more important qualitative factors such as:

Trainer competency level

Participant performance support system

Participant competency level

Success rate at the workplace

Praxis relevance of the training and development

Employer satisfaction

In other words, the focus should not only be on the inputs but primarily on the outcomes. The question is: Can training professionals document the achievements of their participants?