ISO Standard
The ISO standards refer fundamentally to the consistency and systematization of the processes. They constitute a method to standardize the organization activities and to offer reliability to customers over the expected quality of products and services.
The group of ISO 9000 standards is applied in quality management; in fact, the ISO standards are not related to the intrinsic features of a given good or service. In other words, even if a vocational training institution is certified by ISO 9000, competency certification related to the performance of its graduates is required.
As there is a high valuation of the ISO standards as “quality hallmarks”, among other reasons this valuation has extended their usage to the Vocational training institutions.
One of the standards is standard ISO 10015:1999
on Quality management - guidelines for training.
The ISO 10015:1999 Guidelines for Training can help an institution to: Identify and analyze training needs, design and plan the training, provide for the training, evaluate training outcomes, monitor and improve the training process.
Another standard is ISO/IEC 17024:2003 that deals with Conformity assessment - General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons. ISO 17024 is designed to harmonize the personnel certification process worldwide and it describes competency as:
”The demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attributes."
ISO 9001:2008 defines minimum requirements for a Quality Management System. The standard specifies activities that need to be considered during implementation of the system. The requirements are applicable to all organizations.
In 2007, ISO published updated guidelines to facilitate the implementation of quality management systems in educational organizations: IWA 2:2007, Quality management systems – Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001 in education. IWA 2:2007 adds value to a QMS based on ISO 9001 for educational institutions in several ways: IWA 2 was written by education experts for educational professionals. It uses terminology broadly accepted in the sector, including: educational organization, educational services, education provider, learner, education design, education delivery, assessment of learning, and more.
Related issues
- International Organization for Standardization
- Wikipedia entry on ISO 9000 family of standards
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