Standards for Education
Standards are an important building block of society. They establish best practice, increase efficiency and protect consumers by ensuring the reliability, safety, accessibility and quality of products and services. They are used by all kinds of organisations and businesses, that can also take part in the standards creation processes.
Formal standards
As the UK's National Standards Body, BSI works in collaboration with interested groups to develop formal standards for products, systems and services to improve reliability, quality, and interoperability. There are currently 20,000 published standards and they are all publicly available. Most are voluntary, and take the form of guidance, specifications, or codes of practice.
We are constantly researching and developing new standards in response to business and consumer needs, including the needs of education. For instance, we have recently started work with a number of organisations on a new standard for adventure holidays that will have relevance to education recreational and field trips. Another example is e-learning. BSI is a leading contributor to standards development in IT for learning, education and training, and we are working with the DfES and education agencies to develop new standards for e-learning, e-assessment and interoperability, including UKLeaP, the UK Lifelong Learner Information Profile.
Private Standards
PSS (Private Standards Service) offers an alternative stream of standards creation that has all the rigour of the development of formal standards but BSI works with a single organisation or industry. PSS can work with education institutions and agencies to develop fast track standards to meet a particular need.
What are the existing standards areas?
BSI develops standards for education, or that are relevant to education practices or environments in several business areas. These are examples:
- E-learning and e-assessment
- Safety, risk and business continuity in education establishments
- Management systems
How you can get involved
We welcome your participation in developing standards - in these areas or in other areas you feel are important. If you have suggestions for new standards or have expertise and are willing to represent your institution or an education organisation we would be happy to talk to you.
Contact details
Education Executive
BSI British Standards
389 Chiswick High Road
London W4 4HS
Email: education.info@bsi-global.com
Tel: 020 8996 7534