Lead Auditor / Third Party Auditor Training
Hi Everyone
I am an experienced quality manager and food safety trainer who has been involved in ensuring my company complies with the BRC global standards for the past 10 years.
I am also actively involved with auditing our own site and externally, however, i am wanting to gain an Auditing qualification as a TP auditor or lead auditor.
I have research various training courses e.g BRC, ISO, IRCA auditor courses, but I really am not sure which one would be best suited and which is most recognised to audit TP or maybe in the future become an Auditor with a Certification Body etc.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Many Thanks
AM not in a position to recommend any course as people in the UK would be able to provide better advice in this regard.
As you have lot of experience in BRC so I would like to use experience in drafting te document which would satisfy the requirements of BRC for issues which are based on risk assessments. In the standards the words " based on risk assessment" have been mentioned more than 30 times. Do we need to carry out more than 30 risk assessments or is there a way to minimize the no of risk assessments?
Kind regards
Humaid Khan
MD Halal International
Hi sandra,
Could you expand on yr reasons for recommending (a) BSI, and (b) a FS training program based on ISO9001 ?
Most auditor training is divided into two separate topics: audit technique (often referred to as "lead auditor training" , and the requirements of the specific program one would audit against (int he examples above, the BRC Food 7 requirements, or ISO 9001, or even an organizations own supplier expectation manual).
Although audit technique is reasonably transferable across industry types, it does make sense to take training where the examples, language and focus is on the industry and topic you will focus on. Most programs combine lead auditor training with the program requirements (for example, BRC Third Party Auditor covers audit technique as well as the Standard - most other accredited programs do). If you are going to audit pallet manufacturers against environmental standards, one would tend to take a lead auditor training course designed for environmental auditors. The same would go if you are intending to use your auditing skills primarily in food safety topics - take a lead auditor training based on a food safety program.
If your plan is to lay the groundwork for a future working with a certification body as an auditor - I would always recommend having the discussion with a few of them.
John