IRCA Certified Lead Auditor Training Course ISO 9001

An IRCA certified lead Auditor training course is your first step in becoming a certified lead auditor for ISO 9001. A quality lead auditor is a member of your team who has undertaken a lead auditor training course and has experience of reviewing your processes against the requirements of both your company and the requirements of ISO 9001. There are a number of levels to which an auditor can aspire, the two most commonly talked about are internal auditor and lead auditor.

Usually an Internal Auditor audits the processes and procedures within the company in which they work. A lead Auditor can also audit within their own company but they can also lead teams of auditors on larger audits and audit other companies such as your suppliers as part of a second party audit or conduct third party audits in the employ of a certification body such as Lloyds Register or BSI.

Lead auditor training is far more comprehensive than the training for an internal auditor; the internal auditor course may be just one or two days where the Lead Auditor Training course usually takes a full five days ending in a formal exam.

If you participate in a lead auditing training course then you will learn not just about how to audit but how all of the different aspects of ISO 9001 fit together and how to manage a team of auditors. This qualification is also one that can be converted into an internationally recognized qualification for ISO 9001 Lead auditing with the participation in a number of supervised and lone audits.

An IRCA approved lead auditor training course will normally cover the following areas;

The overall purpose of a Quality Management System

The Principles of Quality Management

The content and inter-relationships of the ISO 9001 standards (ISO 9000, ISO 9001, ISO 9004)

ISO 19011, The international standard against which defines how audits should be conducted.

The Roles, Responsibilities, and qualities of a Lead Auditor / Internal Auditor

Planning and executing an audit in accordance with the requirements of ISO 19011

Creating and Reporting Value-adding, factual and valid audit reports.

Audit follow up and the evaluation of effective corrective actions.

The courses normally take a full four days including various role plays and tests, how you perform within the course will also decide if you pass or fail this course. The fifth day is usually revision of the various topics and then a two hour examination that will test your knowledge of both ISO 9001 and how to conduct an audit.

Having completed your lead auditor training and passed your exam you will have your course certificate, however this does not make you a “certified lead auditor”. As long as your training course was IRCA (International Register of Certified Auditors) then you can convert your training with the addition of some experience to become a certified lead auditor.

The International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA) was set up in 1984 by the Institute of Quality Assurance in the UK, now the Chartered Institute of Quality Assurance. Originally it was known as the Assessor Registration Board, but became the International Register of Certified Auditors in 1994 to reflect its now international role in certifying Auditors for the likes of the many ISO 9001 certification bodies.

IRCA is responsible for approving both auditor training courses as well as certifying auditors.

An alternative to IRCA is the International Personnel Certification Association (IPC)

To ensure that you get up to date requirements for the grade of auditor visit the Irca website for the information, the grades that you can apply for are;

As described on the IRCA website.

Internal auditor

For auditors who conduct internal audits of their organization's management system

Recognizes the auditors personal attributes, education, professional and technical competencies

Provisional auditor

For entry level/trainee auditors seeking a career in auditing and experienced auditors taking a break from auditing or moving into management

Recognizes the auditors personal attributes, education, professional and technical competencies

Auditor

For audit team members

Recognizes the auditor’s competence and contribution as an effective member of an audit team

Lead auditor

For audit team leaders who typically work for certification bodies or perform supplier audits for large organizations

Recognizes the auditors competence at managing audits and leading teams

Principal auditor

For experienced auditors who operate on their own (i.e. as a team of one, performing sole audits). This grade is an alternative to the lead auditor grade

Recognizes the experience and competence of two categories of auditors:

• consultancy background with competence in implementing management systems and performing all aspects of the audit process
• lead auditor background with competence in audit management and team leadership

Within the IRCA site you can also download all of the required forms for your application process.

The following are some useful links that will help you gain additional information regarding the ISO 9000 standards;

International Organization for Standardization; The ISO home page where you can get all of the relevant up to date information regarding the various international standards such as ISO9001:2008

Lloyds Register Quality Assurance; Lloyds Register Quality Assurance is the oldest and probably the most well known certification body world wide. They offer certification services and training, including ISO 9001 Lead Auditor training courses.

British Standards Institute; British Standards Institute are another well known international certification body who also provide ISO9001 Lead Auditor Training courses.

The American Standards Organization (ANSI) American Standards Organization offers similar services to both Lloyds and BSI in America including ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Training courses.

International Register of Certified Auditors (IRCA); International Register of Certified Auditors where you can have your Lead Auditor certification recognized worldwide enabling you to work for organizations such as Lloyds and BSI

UKAS; United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the body that accredits the certification bodies such as Lloyds, you can use their website to see if the certification body you wish to use is approved.

Chartered Quality Institute (CQI); The Chartered Quality Institute (Formerly the Institute of Quality Assurance.) They can help you with resources about all things quality related as well as training courses.

American Society for Quality (ASQ); American society for quality can help you in the same way that the CQI can help you in the UK.

These links can help if you need more information on becoming a certified ISO 9001:2008 (IRCA Approved) Lead auditor or if you want to discover more about lead auditor training.