Building awareness - understanding what quality is about and why it is important to you and your institution - is one of the first and perhaps the most important step in implementing quality initiatives or quality assurance systems. Every person in the institution must become aware of the need and benefits to reflect and improve, of the promise offered by quality assurance systems or of required improvements, and of the tools available for improvement efforts. Awareness is the key that opens the door to quality improvement and teacher involvement, better education and meeting stakeholder needs (businesses, students, government etc.). It is a strong requisite to start working on a culture of quality. Key elements in doing this are:

• Build your personal awareness
• Consensus building
• Agree upon timeline