The Association of Education Advisers has been established to help ensure quality and consistency in the advice given by school improvement advisers working in the education system.

These colleagues play a critical role and are increasingly deployed to provide specialist advice in the areas of educational improvement, governance, change management, finance and people development. Significant numbers of education leaders now work for national, international and local government, individual schools, academies and colleges and other educational settings.

The need for quality and consistency of advice is a very important concern. While government departments make their own judgements about the strengths and weaknesses of individual schools, it is essential that schools and colleges are confident their self-evaluation is sound and will withstand scrutiny by regulatory bodies.

The diverse education systems across the UK and overseas comprise a wide range of education leaders with different titles, who work to a variety of guidelines and standards and adopt differing approaches to the various requirements and priorities of providers. The system requires better quality and greater consistency and reliability in the advice received.

In the past, the accreditation of education advisers has tended to concentrate on data analysis and the key aspects of school and college improvement, as identified by government. The education context has significantly changed and requires a broader focus on corporate governance, establishing and developing educational organisations and quality management systems. The AoEA has developed an accreditation process based on clearly defined competence criteria which will allow people intending to provide advice to schools and colleges to demonstrate that they meet rigorous standards.

There are two levels of accreditation – associate and senior associate.