{"id":30,"date":"2015-03-28T22:32:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T22:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/iso-9001-myth-4-lead-audtor-training\/"},"modified":"2015-04-08T12:56:25","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T12:56:25","slug":"iso-9001-myth-4-lead-audtor-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/iso-9001-myth-4-lead-audtor-training\/","title":{"rendered":"ISO 9001 Myth #4 – Lead Auditor Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my ongoing effort to counteract misinformation and misconceptions associated with ISO 9001 certification<\/a>, I now turn to the misunderstood subject of Lead Auditor Training.\u00a0 In the spirit of full disclosure, I must first admit that my firm owns an internationally accredited ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Training course<\/a>.\u00a0 In fact, Pinnacle holds the distinction of being the first consulting and training company to provide an IRCA\/IATCA certified ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Training<\/a> program to the healthcare industry.\u00a0 But today we no longer offer this course.\u00a0 The reason we don\u2019t is at the heart of the misinformation and misunderstanding regarding the need for Lead Auditor Training and the subject of this article.<\/p>\n

Maintaining ISO 9001 certification<\/a> (or ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification<\/a>, for that matter) requires thorough, regular internal audits.\u00a0 Clause 8.2.2 of ISO 9001 and clause 4.5.5 of ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 stipulate this.\u00a0 Furthermore, clause 6.2 Human resources<\/em> of ISO 9001 and its ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 counterpart, clause 4.4.2 Competence, training and awareness<\/em>, require that your staff be appropriately qualified, trained, and competent.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many extrapolate and exploit these requirements to mean that formal Lead Auditor Training is required to implement and maintain a formal internal auditing program.\u00a0 They then rush out and pay $1300 to $1800 per person for this training, which also takes them out of their jobs for a week, in the hope of honing their internal auditing expertise.\u00a0 A careful reading of these clauses however, reveals that at no point do they state or even imply this requirement.<\/p>\n

This myth lies somewhere between a problem with semantics and well-intentioned management teams trying to do the right thing for their companies.\u00a0 Plenty of encouragement to move in the direction of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Lead Auditor Training<\/a> can be found online and in print.\u00a0 The problem:\u00a0 all of the propaganda telling you that your people need these training courses is created by those who profit from selling you the training.\u00a0 So well-meaning organizations send off their finest to prepare to lead and conduct internal audits.<\/p>\n

Still not convinced that your people and your company do not need Lead Auditor Training?\u00a0 Consider the following facts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Lead Auditor Training was developed for and is only required of those individuals who intend to pursue a career as a third party auditor working for a registrar.\u00a0 In other words, if your company is not a registrar, then you would be paying to train your people for a new career with another company.<\/li>\n
  2. Completing a Lead Auditor Training course does NOT provide a Lead Auditor credential.\u00a0 Yes, you read this correctly.\u00a0 A Lead Auditor Training certificate is just a prerequisite for applying to RABQSA for evaluation.\u00a0 Before becoming a Lead Auditor, there are still professional requirements that must be met, including conducting a number of \u201cverifiable audits,\u201d educational requirements, work experience, and sponsorship by an actual accredited registrar.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019ll put it another way:\u00a0 if registrars and accreditation agencies know that ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Lead Auditor Training courses<\/a> do not provide an individual with tactical or tangible external auditing skills, why should your company invest in them for internal auditing?<\/p>\n

    Still not convinced?\u00a0 Then consider that ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Lead Auditor Training<\/a> are generic.\u00a0 Because of RABQSA course accreditation guidelines one course provider cannot waiver much from another.\u00a0 In all cases the courses are designed to fit any participant, regardless of his or her industry and experience.\u00a0 Consequently, when members of a metal fabrication company, for example, attend a week-long course they may find themselves in a class with representatives from a chemical R&D company, a distributor, an IT services company, and a hospital.\u00a0 All of the course material, examples, and exercises are therefore generic.\u00a0 Then it\u2019s up to your people to translate the \u201cISO knowledge\u201d to your industry, your specific company, and your specific business system.<\/p>\n

    What your company and your people really need is internal auditor training designed to teach them how to audit your specific company and its quality or environmental management system.\u00a0 Here again there is a plethora of providers eager to relieve you of your training budget.\u00a0 But you should be wary of public, generic courses for the reasons I described above.\u00a0 Canned internal auditor training simply is not very effective.\u00a0 A truly custom designed ISO 9001 internal auditor training<\/a> and ISO 14001 internal auditor training<\/a> programs works best, but they are fewer and harder to find.<\/p>\n

    A true custom-tailored ISO 9001 internal auditor training<\/a> provider will first need to learn about your company and your quality management system (QMS).\u00a0 The course material, examples, and exercises would then be developed from your actual QMS.\u00a0 Custom designed internal auditor training programs are typically 2-3 days long.\u00a0 A good ISO 9001 internal auditor training program<\/a> will have a workshop format that devotes at least half of its time to practicing actual internal auditing within your facilities.\u00a0 This approach affords your people a learning environment that matches their daily work environment.\u00a0 The transfer of knowledge and skills is simply more direct, resulting in greater retention and practical skills development.<\/p>\n

    Pinnacle no longer provides ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Training.\u00a0 For the reasons I described above, we simply see no value in it for our clients.\u00a0 Instead, we focus on providing high-value internal auditor training workshops<\/a> that are always tailored to individual customers.\u00a0 In fact, we even offer an internal auditor mentoring program<\/a> that develops internal auditors over the course a several actual internal audits.\u00a0 The results are even more effective.\u00a0 My point is that you should question the common auditor training assumption and ignore the hype.\u00a0 Carefully consider what you really want from your internal auditors.\u00a0 Do you just want them to help you keep a pretty certificate on the wall or do you want them to help drive business improvement?\u00a0 Sure, there is a bit of self-promotion here, but my reasons are good and my intentions are pure.<\/p>\n

    Kirill Liberman, President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In my ongoing effort to counteract misinformation and misconceptions associated with ISO 9001 certification, I now turn to the misunderstood subject of Lead Auditor Training.\u00a0 In the spirit of full disclosure, I must first admit that my firm owns an internationally accredited ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Training course.\u00a0 In fact, Pinnacle holds the distinction of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,7,10,11,12,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-as9100","category-continual-improvement","category-iso13485","category-iso9001","category-pinnacle-enterprise-group","category-process-improvement","category-quality-management-system","category-tl9000","category-ts16949"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pinnacleeg.com\/iso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}