What this programme covers
Personnel certification attests that a named individual has demonstrated competence against a defined scheme — a welding inspector, a non-destructive testing operator, an energy assessor, an auditor. The certificate travels with the person, not the employer.
ISO/IEC 17024 governs how the certification scheme is designed and validated, how examinations are constructed and invigilated, how impartiality is protected where the body also delivers training, and how recertification is handled.
Training and examination
A body may offer training and also certify, but the two must be demonstrably separated: training must not be a condition of certification, examination content must not be derived from a particular course, and the people who trained a candidate must not decide whether that candidate passes.
This is the requirement most personnel certification applications struggle with, because the commercial pull runs the other way.
What is assessed
Assessment covers the whole of the standard, but these are the areas where applications most often need work before accreditation can be granted:
- Scheme design — competence requirements derived from a documented job or task analysis, reviewed by people who represent the interests concerned and not only the body's own staff.
- Examination validity — items mapped to the competence requirements, pass marks set on a defensible basis rather than a convention, and performance analysed after each sitting.
- Examination security — item banks controlled, candidates identified, invigilation specified, and a documented response to suspected malpractice.
- Impartiality where training is offered — separation of trainers from examiners and from the certification decision.
- Certification decision — made by the body on the evidence, not delegated to a training provider or an employer.
- Surveillance and recertification — a defined basis for continuing competence rather than automatic renewal on payment.
- Register of certified persons — maintained, current, and available to those with a legitimate interest in checking.
Witness assessment
We observe examinations being administered — including candidate identification, invigilation and the handling of examination material — and where practical assessment forms part of the scheme, we observe that being conducted and marked.
We also examine a sample of certification decisions against the evidence that supported them, including at least one that was refused.
How the scope is expressed
Accreditation is granted for named certification schemes. Adding a scheme is an extension to scope and requires assessment of that scheme’s design and examinations; it is not covered by an existing accreditation for a different scheme.
