Learning partners
The accreditation standard
What CBA requires of a training organisation before it may deliver a CBA certification, how accreditation is granted and reviewed, and the grounds on which it is suspended or withdrawn.
This is the accreditation standard in full, as it stands today.
What we require
Somebody qualified teaches it
Each programme you deliver has a named lead trainer with demonstrable expertise in that subject — a relevant qualification, or documented professional practice in the field, or both. There is no minimum number of years; you make the case for each trainer, and we assess it.
What we ask for: A CV and a short statement per programme, per trainer.
The whole blueprint is covered
Your delivery covers every domain in the published blueprint, in proportion to its published weighting. You are free to teach it in any order, at any length, in any language, and with your own material — but a candidate who completes your course must have met everything the paper can ask about.
What we ask for: A mapping of your sessions to the blueprint domains, which we check against the published weightings.
You do not teach the paper
You will not see the item bank and must not attempt to reconstruct it. Preparing candidates against remembered questions, circulated questions, or questions reverse-engineered from candidate reports is malpractice and ends an accreditation. The specimen paper published for each programme shows the style and standard, and is what you should teach against.
What we ask for: An undertaking in the partner agreement, and the monitoring below.
Your marketing says what is true
You may say you are an Approved Learning Partner for named programmes, and use the partner mark we issue. You may not describe yourself as accredited by CBA in general, imply CBA endorses your organisation beyond those programmes, offer or imply a pass guarantee, quote a pass rate you cannot evidence, or grant an exemption from any part of a CBA assessment — no partner has that authority, and any statement that it does is made without ours.
What we ask for: We check your public material at accreditation and at each annual review.
Assessment stays with CBA
You teach; we assess. You do not mark, moderate, invigilate, or influence any candidate’s result, and no member of your staff sits on a standard-setting panel for a programme you deliver.
What we ask for: Structural — there is no mechanism by which a partner could.
Candidates can reach us directly
Your candidates keep every right they would have buying from us: the appeals route, the complaints route, reasonable adjustments, and access to their own records. You must not position yourself as the only route to CBA, and you must pass on a complaint about CBA rather than resolving it on our behalf.
What we ask for: A published statement in your own candidate material, which we check.
You tell us when something changes
A change of lead trainer, a change of ownership, a material change to how you deliver a programme, or a regulatory action against your organisation in any country you operate in. Within thirty days.
What we ask for: Notification.
How accreditation works
- 01
You apply
The form asks who you are, what you want to deliver and roughly how many learners you train a year.
- 02
We assess against the standard above
We ask for the evidence listed against each requirement, and we come back with questions rather than a rejection where something is thin. Applications are acknowledged within five working days and assessed within twenty.
- 03
Terms are agreed in writing
The commercial terms, the programmes you are approved for, and the duration of the accreditation. Nothing is signed before you have seen all three.
- 04
You appear in the public directory
With the specific programmes you may deliver and the date your accreditation runs to. A provider whose accreditation lapses drops out automatically — the directory is generated from the record, not maintained by hand, so it cannot show somebody who is no longer approved.
- 05
Annual review
We look at your public material against requirement 4, your blueprint mapping against requirement 2, any change of lead trainer, and the outcomes of your candidates against the cohort as a whole. A pattern that suggests coaching against the bank is investigated under the malpractice policy.
Suspension and withdrawal
An accreditation can be suspended while something is investigated, and withdrawn if it is upheld. The grounds are a breach of the standard above, a finding under the malpractice policy, or a misrepresentation of the relationship in your marketing.
You are told what is alleged, you may respond, a named person decides, and you may appeal it under the same complaints and appeals procedure a candidate uses. A withdrawal removes you from the directory and ends your right to the partner mark; it does not affect any credential your candidates have already been awarded, because they earned those from us and not from you.
Commercial terms
Approved Learning Partners buy examination vouchers below the published candidate price, at a discount that improves with the number of students certified in the accreditation year.
- Annual accreditation fee
- $1,000 a year
- Minimum volume
- 10 vouchers per accreditation year
| Students certified per year | Discount on the published price |
|---|---|
| 10 to 50 | On application |
| 51 to 100 | On application |
| More than 100 | On application |
The terms quoted in your accreditation agreement are the terms that apply, with no separate schedule of charges. CBA does not sell the same certification direct at a lower price than it sells it to an accredited partner.