Accreditation mill

Okay kiddo, imagine you have a toy car that you really love playing with. Now, some other kids might come up to you and say "Hey, we can give you a sticker that says your car is the best car in the world!" You might feel really excited and proud, and put that sticker on your car.

But what if those kids who gave you the sticker didn't actually know much about cars? Maybe they just made up a silly ranking system and gave everyone stickers to make them feel good. Now, your car might have a sticker that says it's the best car, but other people who know about cars might not think much of that sticker because they know those kids who gave it out don't really know what they're talking about.

That's kind of what an accreditation mill is. It's a place that gives out stickers (or in this case, accreditation) saying that schools or companies or other organizations are really good at what they do. But these accreditation mills aren't really trustworthy because they don't have high standards or objective ways of measuring quality.

So, just like how smart people might not care about a sticker on your toy car that doesn't actually mean anything, universities or employers might not care about an accreditation from an accreditation mill because they know it doesn't actually show that the school or company is good at what they do.