The Naval Safety and Environmental Training Center (NAVSAFENVTRACEN) is seeking accreditation with the Commission of the Council on Occupational Education (COE). The training center provides quality education and training for military and civilian Navy and Marine Corps personnel, both afloat and ashore, in the areas of occupational safety, industrial hygiene, environmental protection and emergency management.

Accreditation is the recognition from an accrediting agency that an institution maintains a certain level of educational standards. The U.S. Department of Education maintains a database of recognized accrediting agencies. There are two basic types of educational accreditations, institutional and specialized or programmatic.

An institutional accreditation usually applies to an entire institution, indicating each entity of a school contributes to achieving the school’s objectives. This process does not necessarily mean that all parts of the school have the same quality level of education. A specialized or programmatic accreditation typically evaluates specified programs, departments or small entities within the larger institution. A unit receiving a specialized accreditation could be as large as a college within a university system, or as small as a curriculum within a specified program of study.

“This is an exciting time for us at the training center as we seek candidate status with the Council,” said Amanda Carter, NAVSAFENVTRACEN training support department head. “Our goal through this process is to identify areas for improvement to ensure we are providing the highest quality training to the communities we serve.”

According to the COE handbook, the Candidate for Accreditation is a pre-accreditation status of an institution actively seeking accreditation by the Commission. During the period of candidacy, the institution is involved in the process of self-study and planning for a team visit. Candidate status does not imply accreditation of an institution. The institution must not use its candidate status in any way to imply, publicly or privately, that candidate status with the Council denotes approval of its programs or accreditation of the institution by the Commission. Institutions in candidate status are not permitted to apply for approval of any substantive changes.

“Gaining candidate accreditation status will be a great first step for our students and training center,” said Commanding Officer Cmdr. Charles Wilhite. “The follow-on process of gaining full accreditation will allow the command the opportunity to conduct a comprehensive review of our curriculum, validate our training and ensure the highest level of education to the fleet. Additionally, full accreditation will potentially enable our students to gain college or continuing education credit, which will ultimately save time and money for the fleet.”

The COE requires candidates to complete accreditation efforts within 24 months. NAVSAFENVTRANCEN’s goal is to earn accreditation by September 2022.

Those wishing comment on these accreditation efforts should write to the Executive Director of the Commission, Council on Occupational Education, 7840 Roswell Road, Bldg. 300, Suite 325, Atlanta, GA 30350, or submit their comments through the Council’s website at www.council.org. All submissions must provide a name and mailing address.

To learn more about NAVSAFENVTRACEN and its course offerings, visit https://navalsafetycenter.navy.mil/Learning/NAVSAFENVTRACEN/.