This booklet introduces the principles and practices of benchmarking as a way of raising quality and achievement at further education colleges in Britain. Section 1 defines the concept of benchmarking. Section 2 explains what benchmarking is not and the steps that should be taken before benchmarking is initiated. The following aspects and components of the benchmarking process are detailed in section 3: what to benchmark, available resources, process owners, scope, individuals to involve, understanding the existing process, process gaps, the information that is needed, questionnaires, who to benchmark, the first contact, actions to take before the visit, actions to take during the visit, collating and analyzing the information gathered, the way forward, making changes, review, and common causes of failure. Section 4 is a flowchart summarizing the 15 steps of the benchmarking process. Section 5 contains additional information on the following topics: the Raising Quality and Achievement Programme; processes; student and staff satisfaction surveys; Pareto analysis; self-assessment; critical success factors; probe; the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Excellence Model; flowcharting; the Further Education Development Agency benchmarking database; and a benchmarking code of conduct. Concluding the booklet are two references and the phone numbers and Web addresses of four useful organizations. (MN)