The Association of Internet Professionals, a Los Angeles-based organization with an international membership of 8,500, is working on an accreditation process for programs that teach Web-related computer skills.
The accreditation program was announced in 1998 and last month the first three programs received accreditation – including Penn State University’s webmaster certification program, according to Andrew Kraft, AIP’s president. The other two accredited programs were HyCurve Training Program’s USWeb Learning and profsofttraining.com’s certified Internet webmaster program. Another seven programs have since requested that AIP review them, one of which was denied accreditation status, Kraft said.
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There are plans to establish standards in three categories: technical, design and business, according to Kraft. Only the technical standards have been set so far, but AIP is expected to adopt standards for the other two categories by year’s end.
Some of the association’s 120 corporate members, including Novell and HyCurve Training Programs, actually suggested that AIP tackle the accreditation matter, Kraft added. Though the companies long had a desire for an industry-wide standard of some sort, it got a little tricky because no one wanted to let a single company establish the rules, he said.
”You can’t have a single company have that standard,” Kraft said. “We’re providing a third-party, independent standard.”
A committee composed of representatives from several areas was set up to define the standards, he added. It includes members of academia, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and representatives from software, hardware and staffing companies, according to Kraft.
AIP staffers will review the curriculum for programs, then visit the school or training program to see what they are actually teaching. The AIP staff visits the school within six months of reviewing the curriculum and the school gets no advanced warning of the visit, Kraft explained. There is no fee for the accreditation process, although the organizations must be corporate members of AIP before being reviewed.
In some respects this is designed to be the high tech version of the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for schools and programs, which offer training to budding webmasters and other computer professionals.
Some Rhode Island high tech executives said perhaps it is time for just such an accreditation program, but that the AIP needs to promote it more heavily before it gains widespread acceptance.
”It’s an eventual thing,” said Julio Burgo, president of Big Dog Technologies Inc., a Providence Internet service provider that also provides web design services. “I started the company five years ago; in Internet terms I’m a dinosaur. When it (the Internet) first came out people were doing it in more a hodge podge fashion. Now it’s more a profession.
”I’m definitely in favor of it. I would like to see some standards,” Burgo said. “If you’re going to say you’re a webmaster, you should have a familiarity with some operating systems, you should know HTML.
”I think it’s thrown around a little loosely these days. Just because you worked on some vacation pictures for your family and did a web site, does that mean you’re ready to be a webmaster for a Fortune 500 company?”
The accreditation process should be particularly helpful in defining what skills a webmaster should have, said R. David Wechsler, acting president of the Boston AIP chapter. “In particular, I think the question is what is a webmaster?
”Their skills are so different than anybody else’s a lot of times employers look at a resume and say, ‘hey do these people really have the skills we need?'” Wechsler said.
Schools with the AIP accreditation may ultimately benefit their graduates, by making them “more valuable in the market,” Wechsler added.
Christopher D’Iorio, president of NetSense Internet Solutions in Wakefield, said he is not familiar with AIP and its accrediting program. “When anyone puts a seal of approval on anything, I have to know something about that company,” D’Iorio said, adding he’d expect the organization to do a lot more marketing before its accreditation had true meaning.
For instance, when he has a job applicant who has received Microsoft or other common industry certifications, D’Iorio said he knows exactly what learning process the candidate went through. “The certification process is well documented. That’s valuable to an employer. It’s also marketable. If somebody has CISCO certification or Microsoft certification you get more money per hour for those people,” he added.
Likewise he can command more money per hour and even get help securing some jobs, because he has employees who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.
”When I go into a meeting in New York and I say my designers are RISD designers, bang that’s a contract you can win,” D’Iorio said.
Kraft said the AIP hasn’t “done a major marketing push yet,” because they haven’t finished determining the standards. After the program is set up, he added, they will begin a major banner advertisement campaign and promoting the accreditation program at trade shows.
AIP was created in 1997, after a merger involving three different associations, including the Webmaster’s Guild. The Guild, which was founded in 1994, was the oldest association involved in the merger. For more information on the program, visit the web site accredit.net.
