Candidate phase

During this period:

• schools wishing to be authorized to offer the Primary Years Programme (PYP) or Middle Years Programme (MYP) will begin trial implementation of the programme that will last no less than one academic year 
• the programme coordinator and other staff must attend specified IB-recognized professional development activities 
• the school may publicize its status as a candidate school, using language provided by the IB on the Rules for use of IB Intellectual Property web page
• the school receives the support of the IB, its relevant IB regional office, and an assigned consultant from the IB educator network (IBEN), who has been fully trained according to global IB policies.

A crucial element of the candidate phase is the consultation process, which includes a fixed number of hours of remote consultation per year of candidacy as well as—for all programmes except the CP—an on-site visit.

Throughout the candidate phase, the consultant will customize support and advice based on information provided in the current IB publications and his or her professional knowledge of the appropriate programme.

Both after the consultation visit and at the end of the consultation process, the school will receive a report from the consultant. Each report summarizes the progress made by the school towards meeting the requirements for authorization and provides feedback on the school’s readiness to apply for authorization.

While the school ultimately chooses when it is ready to apply for authorization, the consultant’s feedback and guidance should be strongly considered in making this important decision.

In addition to the Guide to school authorization, useful documents for this phase include the Programme standards and practices, Guidelines for consultants, and Rules for candidate Schools that can be found in our resource and document library.

These documents are the authoritative statements of the standards, practices and requirements to which schools are subject during and after the authorization process.