Vision

Industrialized construction will not scale without a workforce trained for it. Offsite construction has become a distinct field, with its own methods, workflows, delivery models, and competencies, and the people who practice it need an education built for that reality. Architecture has the National Architectural Accrediting Board. Engineering has the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Construction management has the American Council for Construction Education. Offsite construction has had nothing. The Accreditation Board for Offsite Construction Education exists to close that gap, and it already exists in fact.

The Center for Offsite Construction co-founded ABOCE with the Modular Building Institute, and it is now an independent nonprofit standing on its own. This page is the part of the roadmap that has already shipped. It is the answer to the question every funder eventually asks, which is whether this team finishes what it starts.

The Problem

A new kind of building requires a new kind of professional, and the education system has not produced one. A degree that prepares a student for offsite practice has to span architectural design, engineering systems, manufacturing processes, supply-chain logistics, transportation, site assembly, and coordinated delivery. No accreditor has ever defined that body of knowledge, so universities that want to teach it have had no benchmark to build toward and no credential to award against. Employers have had no reliable signal that a graduate is prepared. The gap is not a shortage of interest. It is a shortage of infrastructure.

The scale of the opportunity is precise. More than 450 institutions across North America already hold at least one relevant accreditation and could move quickly. Twenty-one are already triple-accredited across architecture, engineering, and construction, and they already teach most of the concepts an offsite degree would require. Zero accredited offsite pathways exist today. The runway is built. The credential is missing.

From task force to launched institution

ABOCE is not a proposal. It is a working institution, and it got there through a deliberate sequence the CfOC carried with MBI. An industry-wide Accreditation Task Force studied the feasibility, structure, governance, and need for an independent accreditor, and in August 2025 it voted unanimously to proceed. MBI and the CfOC then formalized their partnership and incorporated ABOCE as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, deliberately separate from both founders so its accreditation decisions carry no conflict of interest. The organization launched publicly in 2026, with an online press conference and a full public presence at aboce.org that already states its mission, its three pillars of accreditation, and the shape of its conditions, procedures, and model curriculum.

That is a great deal of real institutional machinery built in roughly a year, by a team operating on conviction. The functioning staff today is two people, Jason Van Nest and Matt Ford, working as volunteers. The CfOC points to this project for a simple reason. It is proof that the roadmap is not a wish list. The hardest part of building an institution, which is bringing it into existence at all, is done.

What comes next

The work ahead is the work of an accreditor coming fully online. ABOCE will adopt its bylaws, expected in the summer of 2026, and seat its founding board, drawn from architecture, engineering, construction management, manufacturing, and academia so that accreditation decisions reflect the full complexity of offsite practice. It will then seat the committees that author the rules, draft the conditions a program must meet and the procedures by which it is reviewed, recruit the first universities to seek accreditation, and accredit the first programs. Each step is sequenced on the ABOCE site, and each is now an execution task rather than an open question.

Phase	What happens	Status
0	Founding & launchIndustry-wide Accreditation Task Force, unanimous vote (August 2025), MBI–CfOC partnership, incorporation as an independent 501(c)(3), and public launch at aboce.org.	✓ Done
1	Bylaws & founding boardAdopt the bylaws (expected summer 2026) and seat the founding board across architecture, engineering, construction management, manufacturing, and academia.	● In progress
2	Conditions & Procedures committeesSeat the committees that author the rules of accreditation.	Next
3	Draft the Conditions & ProceduresWrite the conditions a program must meet and the procedures by which it is reviewed.	Upcoming
4	Recruit the first schoolsInvite and prepare the first universities to seek accreditation.	Upcoming
5	Accredit the first programsReview and accredit the first offsite construction degree programs.	Upcoming

The Federation Effect in the Workforce

A federation is only as strong as the people who can work inside it. Accreditation gives offsite education a common standard, so a graduate from one program carries skills the whole marketplace recognizes. A firm that hires from accredited programs trusts the training without testing it from scratch. Schools gain a shared benchmark, and employers gain a labor pool that speaks the same technical language across the industry. The federation the rest of the roadmap builds in products, contracts, and data reaches its full strength only when the workforce is trained to the same shared standards. ABOCE is how that happens.

How ABOCE connects to the rest of the roadmap

ABOCE is the workforce layer of the roadmap. The physical standards, the legal framework, the file type, and the data tools all assume a workforce that can design and deliver buildings as coordinated products. That workforce does not exist at scale yet, and no amount of infrastructure substitutes for the people who use it. ABOCE builds the pipeline the rest of the roadmap depends on.

It is also the clearest demonstration of how the CfOC works. The CfOC does not own ABOCE and does not control it. The CfOC co-founded it with MBI, contributed the academic and research foundation and the convening that brought the field together, and then helped stand up a body deliberately independent of both founders. Everything operational, including governance, participation, and funding, lives at ABOCE. This page credits the work and points there.

Phase	Funding
0 · Founding & launch	See ABOCE’s Use of Funds →
1 · Bylaws & founding board
2 · Conditions & Procedures committees
3 · Draft the Conditions & Procedures
4 · Recruit the first schools
5 · Accredit the first programs

Key Outcomes

The near-term prize is the first accredited offsite construction degree programs in the country. When they exist, universities gain a benchmark to build toward, students gain a credential that means something to employers, and employers gain a trustworthy signal that a graduate is prepared for offsite practice. A field that has been assembling itself from adjacent disciplines gains a defined body of knowledge and a recognized pathway into it.

The larger outcome is the one this page is named for. ABOCE is evidence. It shows funders, partners, and government that the CfOC defines hard problems and then resolves them into standing institutions. Every future ask the CfOC makes is stronger because this one was delivered. Momentum is itself an outcome, and ABOCE is the CfOC’s proof of it.

Assessment

Progress is measured by institutional milestones reached and credibility earned. The milestones already met are concrete: a unanimous task-force mandate, an incorporated independent nonprofit, and a public launch with a working framework. The milestones ahead are equally concrete: bylaws adopted, a balanced founding board seated, the conditions and procedures committees standing, the accreditation rules drafted and published, the first cohort of universities recruited, and the first programs accredited. Each is a visible, datable event rather than a vague aspiration.

The deeper measure is recognition. Success looks like universities treating ABOCE accreditation as worth pursuing, employers treating it as a hiring signal, and the broader accreditation community treating offsite construction as a field that warranted its own board. ABOCE is judged, finally, by whether it takes its place alongside the bodies that accredit architecture, engineering, and construction management. It was built to.

Key Partners

ABOCE was co-founded by the Modular Building Institute and the Center for Offsite Construction, and the two bring complementary strengths. MBI contributes industry expertise, practitioner networks, workforce-development experience, and direct employer insight. The CfOC contributes the academic and research foundation, its work on offsite design and delivery curricula, and its leadership in convening experts across the sector. Jason Van Nest directs the CfOC’s role, and he and Matt Ford carry the day-to-day work as volunteers.

ABOCE itself is the partner that now holds the work. Its board will draw from architecture, engineering, construction management, manufacturing, and academia. Universities are its essential collaborators, as the institutions that will build and seek accreditation for offsite degree programs. Employers across the offsite industry are its downstream beneficiaries, since the pipeline exists to serve them. Participation in every part of this, from the board to the curriculum drafting team to the visiting teams, is open and runs through ABOCE.

Key Idea

Every CTO tool lowers the cost of trusting another firm. Accreditation extends that trust to the people who do the work.