The project focuses on providing processes and tools for CE operations benchmarking and by doing so promoting learning within and developing management of the CE organisations. The project is divided into two main activities:
a) Creating systems for defining and gathering valid benchmarking data from continuing education operations. This data will be used for CE organisations self assessment and sharing best practices amongst the organisations.
b) Extending the benchmarking tools to be available for all continuing education providers. The project utilizes fully the outcomes of the former DAETE project in which an EFQM based self-assessment matrix was designed to help assess CE organisation’s operations.

Summary of activities

This proposal describes two activities, neither of which is possible without the prior work on DAETE but also more than extensions; but rather fundamental to benchmarking continuing education as learned from the prior work. The two proposed activities are:
1. Defining, building, and collecting processes and systems that allow for validated benchmark data from continuing education operations to be used for self-assessment and improvement;
2. Extension of the benchmarking and survey tools for all continuing professional education providers beyond engineering and beyond public universities of higher education.

IACEE (International Association of Continuing Engineering Education) is seeking to establish an award for recognizing the best-in-class organizations by the DAETE criteria. However, without validated comparable data, it is difficult to objectively determine best-in-class and most importantly be able to share the rationale for the selection so that others can learn and improve, thus bettering all continuing engineering education, and potentially all continuing education on a global basis.