Who the scheme is for

• Quality management system auditors, such as those employed by third-party certification bodies/registrars or by purchasing organisations (second-party auditors)
• Quality management practitioners, such as quality management consultants, quality managers and third-party certification managers
• Employees conducting quality management system audits within their own organisations (internal audits).

Requirements

As a quality management systems auditor you will need to demonstrate that you:

• Have knowledge of basic quality management principles
• Understand the quality management tools and techniques applied in organisations which enable you to assess a quality management system, and generate audit findings and conclusions
• Understand an organisation’s operational activities and interactions, and their relationship with product quality.

The scheme is based on ISO 9001: Quality management systems – Requirements. Please note that ISO 9001:2015 has replaced the previous version ISO 9001:2008.

We accept some QMS standards as alternatives to ISO 9001. If you are auditing to a standard other than ISO 9001, see this list to check if it is an acceptable alternative.

If you are auditing to a standard which is not on this list but you think ought to be, please contact us at applications@quality.org .

PLEASE NOTE: Following the introduction of ISO 9001:2015, all current IRCA Certificated QMS Auditors are required to attend IRCA Certified ISO 9001:2015 Transition Training by 1 September 2018 in order to maintain their certification.