Who accredits the accreditor? I was just recently asked this question.\u00a0 To answer this question, we must go back and describe the landscape.\u00a0 First, there are many types of accrediting bodies.\u00a0 For example, there are bodies that accredit universities and educational institutions such as the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) and there are Specialized Accrediting bodies who accredited specific types of institutions such as Schools of Nursing, Schools of Business or specific programs such as physical therapy or social work.\u00a0 These higher education accreditations are recognized either by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the Department of Education or both.\u00a0 Both have transparent standards that these accreditation bodies must meet.\u00a0 Even ANSI accredits more than certification bodies for persons.<\/p>\n
For this post, we are going to focus on Accreditation Bodies that accredit Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) which include certification bodies for persons<\/strong>.\u00a0 Next we have to address what accreditation standard the accrediting body is accrediting to.\u00a0 For certification of persons, ANSI accredits to an ISO standard (ISO\/IEC 17024 Conformity Assessment \u2013 General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons<\/em>). \u00a0Additionally in the United States, the International Accreditation Service, Inc. (IAS) also accredits to the ISO\/IEC 17024 standard as does the United Accreditation Foundation (UAF) and the International Certification Accreditation Council (ICAC).<\/p>\n But not all person certification accreditors accredit to an ISO standard.\u00a0 The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) accredits certification bodies for persons and they accredit to their own standard, the NCCA\u2019s Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs<\/em>. The National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies (NASCLA) accredits providers who provide examinations specifically meeting their Commercial General Building Contractors Test specifications<\/em>.<\/p>\n The other background information needed to understand this post is who the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) is, and what a Multi-Lateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) is.\u00a0 IAF<\/a><\/span> is the world association of Accreditation Bodies and other bodies interested in conformity assessment. ANSI, IAS and UAF are all members of IAF<\/a><\/span> from the U.S. An MLA is an agreement to recognize accreditation offered by other accreditation bodies who are signatories to the MLA and have demonstrated through a peer review process that they abide by ISO\/IEC 17011 and the relevant accreditation standard (in this case ISO\/IEC 17024).\u00a0 This is explained in more detail below.\u00a0 IAF describes the MLA here<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n The IAF MLA relies heavily on Regional Accreditation Groups which are smaller clusters of countries that work together as part of IAF.\u00a0 For the United States, the regional accreditation group associated with Certification of Persons is the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC).\u00a0PAC<\/a><\/span> has a MLA for the certification of persons.\u00a0Members of IAF and IAF Regional Accreditation Groups are accepted as signatories to the MLA if they are found to meet an ISO standard for how they operate as an Accreditation Body.\u00a0 That standard is ISO\/IEC 17011: Conformity Assessment – Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies.<\/em>\u00a0 ISO\/IEC 17011 describes how Accreditation Bodies are to operate when accrediting certification bodies.<\/p>\n In order to determine if an Accreditation Body is meeting ISO\/IEC 17011, IAF has created a peer evaluation process where assessors from other Accreditation Bodies in other countries conduct an audit of the Accreditation Body.\u00a0 In addition, the accreditation body must demonstrate they are properly evaluating the certification body against the requirements of the relevant standard, in this case, ISO\/IEC 17024. \u00a0If the Accreditation Body is found to have met ISO\/IEC 17011 and is properly evaluating Certification Bodies to ISO\/IEC 17024 for the certification of persons, then they are accepted as a signatory to that specific MLA.\u00a0 For example, ANSI<\/a><\/span> is part of PAC and has also been recognized under the PAC MLA for person certification.<\/p>\n So what should a certification body look for when selecting an Accreditation Body to accredit their Certification Body?\u00a0 There are a couple of hallmarks of a quality Accreditation Body.\u00a0 Here are things to ask your Accreditation Body:<\/p>\n Is your Accreditation Body actually conducting accreditation activities?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n ISO\/IEC 17011 (clause 3.1) defines accreditation<\/em><\/strong> as \u201cthird-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 There are two important aspects of this definition that help to define if an Accreditation Body is actually conducting accreditation activities.\u00a0 The first is \u201cthird-party attestation\u201d.\u00a0 Remembering the blog post<\/a><\/span> talking about first, second and third party, third-party means the Accreditation Body cannot be accrediting its own certification or examination programs. That would be first party and is not an acceptable accreditation activity.<\/p>\n The other important part of the accreditation definition above are the terms \u201cconformity assessment body<\/em>\u201d and \u201cconformity assessment tasks<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 An Accreditation Body accredits conformity assessment bodies (Certification Bodies) that are carrying out conformity assessment tasks (certifying people).\u00a0 Accreditation of Certification Bodies for persons is not accrediting examinations (particularly educationally based examinations) or accrediting examination providers.\u00a0 An examination by itself does not meet the definition of \u201ccertification<\/em><\/strong>\u201d. An examination is a component of certification but it isn\u2019t certification by itself.\u00a0 Therefore examinations alone are not accredited.\u00a0 And an examination provider (such as Professional Testing) that develops examinations for another body is not a Certification Body.<\/p>\n Accreditation Bodies accredit certification bodies for persons<\/em><\/strong>, not just the examinations even if they are a part of certification.<\/em><\/strong> And these programs are required (according to ISO\/IEC 17024) to award certification to the person and then to recertify the person on a regular basis and have procedures for revoking the certification of the person.<\/p>\n There are bodies who look specifically at examinations.\u00a0 For example the Buros Center for Testing at the University of Nebraska (http:\/\/buros.org\/<\/a><\/span>) has a test review and test recognition process where they look at the quality of the examinations (tests) and note those that meet industry standards (http:\/\/buros.org\/test-reviews-information<\/a><\/span>).\u00a0 This can be a valuable service and important for those who are seeking input on the quality and validity of their examinations.\u00a0 But this is not accreditation and definitely not accreditation of a Certification Body.<\/p>\n Ask your Accreditation Body if they are accrediting their own certification or examination programs.\u00a0 If they are, they are not actually conducting accreditation activities.\u00a0 Ask your Accreditation Body if they are accrediting examinations, particularly educational examinations.\u00a0 If so, they are not conducting accreditation activities.<\/p>\n Is your Accreditation Body accrediting to a published standard?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Accreditation is a conformity assessment activity whereby the Accreditation Body is evaluating the Certification Body to see if it is in conformance with a standard.\u00a0 As a Certification Body, you should know what that standard is and be sure that the standard is an accepted, consensus-based standard for the industry you operate in (in this case in the certification of persons industry).<\/p>\n Ask your Accreditation Body what standard they are accrediting you to and how that standard was developed.\u00a0 Ask your Accreditation Body how you can obtain a copy of that standard and then make sure you obtain a copy.<\/p>\n What is the experience of your Accreditation Body in conducting accreditation activities?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Anybody can call themselves an Accreditation Body.\u00a0 Anybody can accredit a Certification Body to an ISO standard.\u00a0 Thus any organization can accredit CBs to ISO\/IEC 17024.\u00a0 But just because a body calls themselves an Accreditation Body and says they are accrediting to a standard for Certification of Persons, doesn\u2019t mean they understand accreditation or have any experience accrediting Certification Bodies.<\/p>\n The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) has been accrediting certification bodies for persons since 1977.\u00a0 ANSI began conducting accreditation of certification bodies for persons in 2003 when ISO\/IEC 17024 was first issued.\u00a0 Both of these Accrediting Bodies have extensive experience accrediting Certification Bodies for persons.<\/p>\n Ask your Accreditation Body how long they have been accrediting certification bodies for persons.\u00a0 Ask them how many certification bodies for persons they have accredited.\u00a0 Look at the websites for the accredited certification bodies to be sure they really are certification bodies.<\/p>\n Does the Accreditation Body meet a standard of performance itself?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n As mentioned, Accrediting Bodies who are signatories to the IAF MLAs and Regional Accreditation Group MLAs have been assessed against ISO\/IEC 17011: Conformity Assessment – Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies and evaluated to see if they are properly evaluating certification bodies against ISO\/IEC 17024.<\/em><\/p>\n Ask your Accreditation Body what standard they are meeting as an accreditation body.<\/p>\n Is the Accreditation Body assessed by a third party?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Accreditation Bodies who are signatories to the IAF MLAs and Regional Accreditation Group MLAs are assessed using a peer evaluation process.\u00a0 That means Assessors from other Accreditation Bodies visit the AB onsite and conduct a thorough evaluation of the operation of the Accreditation Body.<\/p>\n Ask your Accreditation Body what third party has assessed their operations.<\/p>\n Does your Accreditation Body have influence outside of the US?\u00a0 Is it a signatory to the IAF MLA or an IAF Regional Accreditation Group MLA?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Accreditation Bodies who are members of IAF or a Regional Accreditation Group and signatories to the IAF or Regional Accreditation Group MLA for persons, have demonstrated that their ISO\/IEC 17024 accreditation holds influence outside of the United States for the accredited certification body.<\/p>\n Ask your Accreditation Body if they are a member of IAF and a Regional Accreditation Group (PAC for the US).\u00a0 Ask your Accreditation Body if they have been accepted as a signatory to the PAC MLA for certification of persons.<\/p>\n In summary, quality Accreditation Bodies conduct accreditation activities, accredit to a published standard, have experience conducting accreditation of certification bodies, are evaluated by a third party as meeting a standard, belong to a body such as IAF or a Regional Accreditation Group, and are signatories to an international MLA for persons.\u00a0 These are all hallmarks of a quality Accreditation Body and one worth the investment of obtaining accreditation from by a certification body.<\/p>\n ——————————————————-<\/p>\n Dr. Cynthia Woodley is the convenor (Chair) of the ISO working group that just completed updating ISO\/IEC 17011 and also chairs the IAF working group for ISO\/IEC 17024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who accredits the accreditor? I was just recently asked this question.\u00a0 To answer this question, we must go back and describe the landscape.\u00a0 First, there are many types of accrediting bodies.\u00a0 For example, there are bodies that accredit universities and educational institutions such as the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) and there… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[120,84,121,74,122,73],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regulatory-power","tag-accreditation","tag-ansi","tag-iaf","tag-isoiec","tag-mla","tag-third-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}