The Strengths and Weaknesses of ISO 9000 in Vocational Education

ISO 9000 is a set of quality standards that assists an organization to identify, correct and prevent errors, and to promote continual improvement. Educational institutions worldwide are implementing ISO 9000 as they face increasing external pressure to maintain accountability for funding. Similar to other countries, in the United States vocational education providers are implementing ISO 9000. Although ISO has been successful in manufacturing and service industries, the application to education is relatively new and not without its problems. This study used focus group methods to investigate ISO 9000 implementation at nine career and technical centers in Pennsylvania. The findings indicated that there are strengths of ISO 9000 in vocational education such as an improvement in leadership. However, a number of weaknesses of ISO 9000 were also reported, e. g. the time-consuming implementation process. The findings are intended to assist career and technical educators during the implementation of ISO 9000.