Accreditation

Accreditation is the process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented.

Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against official standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies (such as UKAS or IAS); hence they are sometimes known as "accredited certification bodies".[1] The accreditation process ensures that their certification practices are acceptable, typically meaning that they are competent to test and certify third parties, behave ethically and employ suitable quality assurance.

Fields involved

Accreditation processes are used in a wide variety of fields:

Accreditation standards

Many accreditation bodies, such as IAS, operate according to processes developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as specified in ISO/IEC 17011.[2] Accredited entities in specific sectors must provide evidence to the accreditation body that they conform to other standards in the same series:

  • ISO/IEC 17020: "General criteria for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection" (2012)
  • ISO/IEC 17021: "Conformity assessment. Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems" (2011)
  • ISO/IEC 17024: "Conformity Assessment. General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons" (2012)
  • ISO/IEC 17025: "General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories" (2005)

See also
  • Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
  • Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
  • Authentication
  • Certification
  • Certification and accreditation
  • Higher education accreditation
  • Homologation
  • Quality assurance
  • Quality infrastructure
  • Standards organization
  • Verification and validation
International agencies
  • International Certification Accreditation Council
  • International Council on Educational Credential Evaluation
  • International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation
National agencies
  • Department of Defence Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process
  • Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik

References
  1. USDA ISO Guide 65 Program Accreditation for Certification Bodies Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, August 9, 2007
  2. ISO/IEC 17011: "Conformity assessment. General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies" (2004).

Americas

Europe

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