Maybe get things going again

So an even longer leave of absence. Some time spent out of the industry and now I am in a position to start contributing to this ISO 17024 blog once more! Some things to consider if anybody is interested:

• I don't have time to do much research but if you have a story or some information you want me to aggregate then please let me know and I will do what I can
• The Wikipedia page likely needs a bit of an overhaul - thoughts and suggestions welcome

So that is about it, nothing too crazy but this blog has seen some pretty sustained views so it makes sense to keep things going.

17024 accreditations up by 18%

Things seem to be ramping up. Dr Roy Swift at ANSI has just announced that the number of accreditations is up by a whopping 18%

"These accreditations represent the largest one-time increase in organizations and credentials since ANSI launched its programs in 2003," confirmed Dr. Roy Swift, ANSI director of personnel certification accreditation. Just in March the organizations that obtained their accreditation are:

1. American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry (scope: podiatric surgery)
Primary Care in Podiatric Medicine Podiatric Surgery Diabetic Foot Wounds and Foot Wear

2. CompTIA (scope: information technology)
CompTIA A+ CompTIA Network+ CompTIA Security+

3. InfoComm International (scope: audiovisual)
Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) Certified Technology Specialist - Installation (CTS-I)

4. Refrigerating Engineers & Technicians Association (scope: industrial refrigeration)
Certified Assistant Refrigeration Operator (CARO) Certified Industrial Refrigeration Operator (CIRO)

Go here for more information

Talking about competency at the ISO9000 conference

So have just got back from presenting at the ISO9000 conference in Orlando. What a great event. The really interesting thing was although most of the presentation titles at the event did not focus on competencies, many were referencing them in the content of the presentations, typically I saw one of 2 things over and over:

- how the hell do you know your employees are competent!
- how do auditors and quality professionals in general get a handle on competency in our profession

Most notable for me was Jack West's paper on getting serious about auditing (track 8). He did a fantastic job of talking not just about systems and processes, but making the connection between these and the correct development and measurement of competencies to ensure that systems actually work as we intend.

I was a little nervous about my presentation on "Employee Competency: Audit Non-Compliance and the Bottom Line". I thought I was going out on a limb when I challenged the audience (mostly of auditors) to confirm to me if they REALLY challenged organizations measurement of competency (clause 6.2.2 for those technically minded people). The response after the presentation was universally "no". In fact the sentiment was that if they did push too hard, likely no organization would escape that part of the audit intact. Obviously a real issue for the industry.

If anybody is interested the presentation is below:

Wikipedia updates

Just a quick post to note that I have updated the Wikipedia ISO/IEC 17024 page with basically my brief ISO17024 easy reference page.

Hopefully now it is up, people can start to expand and continue to add more references and keep the page "alive". If anybody wishes to add more information, but does not know how then pop me a mail and I will update the information for you.


The Wikipedia link is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_17024.

I do have an issue with the page address (the / between the ISO and IEC has screwed up the page location) but I will fix this over the next couple of days. This is an artifact of the original listing I found on Wikipedia.

Accreditations Against Asbestos!

It has been a while since my last post, chaos of business development causing me to take a quick break from the blogging community.

To get back into the swing of things I decided to do some research as to how ISO17024 is seen as being valued not by the credentialing community, but by industry and regulators.

I found a great piece on how small firms are taking big risks on construction sites, particularly in the rules and regulations around the control of asbestos.

Interestingly the UK Heath and Safety Executive is running a "name and shame" database with over 120 entries related to infringements, the majority of which are failures to identify asbestos relate materials prior to work starting.

Critically one of the key recommendations is that the surveyors that perform these analysis should have a credential or certificate from an ISO17024 accredited organization.

Things seems to be gaining momentum. The newswires and giving me more and more examples of 17024 accreditation, but now we seem to be seeing a real industry pull. This is what really takes a product (which is all ISO17024 really is) from the hype stage into maturity.

I will now be interested to see what ramifications this has, for example will insurance policies change because of this recomendation?

If anybody has any other examples of an industry pull regarding 17024 I would be really interested to hear from you.

Link to the article from heal-mesothelioma is here. The article is written by Mick Dawson who is a commercial director for Bureau Veritas.

Ensuring Insurance Competency!

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) is pursuing ISO 17024 in order to accredit their financial planning professionals to ISO 22222 (quality standard for personal financial planners).


Melanie Blackmore, director of Standards International, said:


"ISO 22222 could possibly be the top professional standard, it will be for higher end financial planners not general advisers."

The Institute of Financial Planning chief executive Nick Cann said it was also looking into becoming ISO 17024 accredited but would consult with members about the extra costs.

"I don’t think that professional bodies will have any more power over advisers if they can accredit them but I do think that it would bring consistency to the market and neutralise the debate about qualifications"

For the full article from Citywire go here.

Department of Defense boost for ISO 17024

It looks like the Department of Defense (DoD) is really pushing its personnel to obtain information assurance (IA) certifications through organizations that are ISO 17024 registered. The DoD Directive 8570.1, (all IA personel with privileged access to a DoD system, regardless of job series or occupational specialty, to obtain a commercial certification credential) will require an additional 30 percent of an estimated 100,000 DoD IA workers obtain a commercial certification in 2008.

DoD certification efforts under 8570 began in 2007, with an initial 10 percent of the DoD IA workforce obtaining professional credentials, and will continue through 2010.

Link to the newsfeed for the full article here.

Raising the Quality of Certifying Organizations

A fantastic article by Mickie S Rops from his blog Association Knowledge and Credentialing on the impact that ISO 17024 could have on the certification industry if widely adopted by certifying organizations.

Raising the Quality of Certifying Organizations

I just concluded a week-long training to become qualified as an assessor for ANSI's Personnel Certification Accreditation under the ISO/IEC 17024:2003 general requirements for bodies operating certification of persons. How easily that phrase just came without having to reflect upon it is some indication of how thorough and intensive the training (and of course a concluding assessment) was!

For those not familiar with the program, let me summarize by saying that 17024 is an internationally-adopted (through ISO) and American-adopted (through ANSI/ASTM) voluntary standard for organizations operating programs that certify individuals (not products or organizations).

Let me just say that if all certifying agencies sought to achieve the requirements set out in 17024 the certifying industry would be a lot stronger for it... for more click here

Easy reference for ISO 17024

Hopefully this will be the first of a few helpful posts around the subject of ISO17024 (General Requirements for Bodies operating Certification of Persons).

What it ISO17024?

Released in 2003, ISO 17024 is designed to harmonize the personnel certification process worldwide. There is still much debate as to the effectiveness of the standard to date, especially with the variability in how it is applied by Accreditation Bodies globally.

The issues that ISO 17024 tackles can be simply summarized:
- Defining what it is you are examine (the competencies)
- Knowledge, skills and personal attributes
- Examination must be independent
- Examination must be a valid test of competence

Where competency is typically described as:
”The demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attributes”

Guidance

Each Accreditation body provides various levels of guidance around compliance and the implementation of ISO 17024. I have attempted to bring together the more in-depth references below:

American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
Overview of Personnel Certification
Documents related to accreditation under ISO 17024
ISO 17024 FAQ
Directory of Accredited Bodies

Standards Council Canada (SCC)
Overview of Personnel Certification
Criteria and Procedures
Directory of Accredited Clients

Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAZ-ANZ)
Personnel Certification Homepage

United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)
Certification Body Schedules

International Accreditation Forum (IAF)
ISO 17024 Guidance

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Link to ISO 17024