Essentially, accreditation is the acknowledgement that a group of experts awards to an educational programme which sufficiently fulfils national and international established quality fundamental standards. An accreditation does not stand for marking; it is to assess and this process implies four paramount stages 1. An institution’s self-reflection on the assessment of their own work; 2. analysis of evidence of such work; 3. feedback to the assessed institution to identify strengths, weaknesses and improvement opportunities, and then, 4. the final ruling, which many people regard as a mere mark.

The process involved in the accreditation of an educational programme is more than just awarding an approval “on paper”. An accreditation is a symbol that an educational programme, after being subjected to assessment, meets quality standards.

Thus, it must be deemed that an accreditation, more than just classifying, stands as an indicator for an educational programme which meets basic quality levels positively impacting on various levels in societies.

CACEI accreditation for an educational programme is high value since it reassures society that such programme contributes to training engineers with academic, technical and human quality for the performance in their careers.

It is evident that graduates who studied in accredited programmes gain access to better job and higher-studies related opportunities as well as in global mobility.

The ones who support these students, be family or institutions, may be confident that these students are getting prepared for life, work, and if possible, to carry on with post degree studies.

On the other hand, public and private institutions holding accredited programmes take advantage of their results employing them as evidence that an impartial and objective organization has validated their educational programmes based on standards which guarantee students’ education for professional performance with quality.

Also, educational institutions show to society, through certifications, their commitment to keep quality in their programmes which have reached a satisfactory level. Likewise, accreditation supports accountability, the development of public policies and those who manage sponsorship sources.

Employers can be certain that graduates from an accredited educational programme stand better chances to meet the requirements for labour market so as to start work in an initial post since these candidates’ education and competences are nationally and internationally acknowledged.

This is the way in which CACEI, through accreditation, contributes to the imparting of reliable, cutting-edge engineering educational programmes to train engineers capable of facing and dealing with challenges that the current environment, dynamic and complex, poses to professionals.