Chile expands quality control team for growing technical education sector
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The Comisión Nacional de Acreditación (CNA) hired 50 new specialists to evaluate the quality of technical and professional education in Chile.
These experts, known as institutional evaluation peers, join a growing team of 330 specialists tasked with inspecting whether institutions meet mandatory standards to receive official accreditation. The expansion of the evaluation team responds to a shift in the Chilean higher education landscape. In 2026, first-year enrollment at professional institutes surpassed university enrollment for the first time.
When including technical training centers, students entering the technical-professional subsystem accounted for 56 percent of all new students. This growth is driven largely by working adults, with one third of new students over age 30 and 14.3 percent over age 35. The CNA plans to use these new specialists to manage a high volume of upcoming accreditation processes for 15 state-run technical training centers.
Renato Bartet, the executive secretary of the CNA, stated that the goal is to ensure the system can contribute to national challenges like innovation and productivity. The agency selected the new peers based on their professional experience, regional diversity, and expertise in areas such as online education and innovation. The 50 new specialists will undergo induction to learn the current accreditation model and evaluation criteria. They will also participate in programs covering emerging topics in higher education.
The CNA seeks to ensure that students develop the ability to adapt and manage their own learning as the labor market changes due to automation and artificial intelligence.
