CERTIFICATION

REQUIREMENTS
QUALIFICATION-BASED
QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (QMS)
AUDITOR CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

RABQSA International Personnel Certification Programs

RABQSA International, Inc. (RABQSA) is accredited by the Joint

Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand
(JAS-ANZ) and InMetro as meeting the requirements of the International
Standard for Personnel Certification Bodies, ISO/IEC 17024:2012 General
requirements for bodies operating the certification of persons.

This program is not covered under RABQSAs scope of accreditation with

JAS-ANZ or InMetro.

Disclaimer
While every effort is made to ensure that the process for evaluating applications for certification
is effective, Exemplar Global does not accept liability for the performance, conduct or services
provided by the certified person or organisation.
Copyright Exemplar Global
This Certification Program and associated Intellectual Property is subject to Exemplar Global
Copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of application, review or reference, as
permitted under the Australian and United States of America Copyright Acts, no part of this
Program may be reproduced by any process without the written permission of the Chief
Executive Officer of Exemplar Global.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................. pg.4
Grades of Certification ................................................................................................. pg.5
Scopes of Certification ................................................................................................ pg.6
Knowledge Requirements ........................................................................................... pg.7
Qualification Requirements ........................................................................................ pg.8
Audit Experience Requirements ................................................................................. pg.9
Re-Certification ............................................................................................................ pg.10

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Introduction
The Qualification-Based (QB) Quality Management System (QMS) Auditor Certification
Program has been developed by RABQSA International, Inc. (RABQSA) in liaison with
industry representatives.
The program provides international recognition for auditors who conduct quality
management system audits using national or international management system standards,
or other management system standards and normative and industry references recognized
by RABQSA.
Confidence and reliance in the audit process depends on the competence of personnel
conducting the audit.
This personnel certification program has been developed to meet the following key
objectives:

To achieve the requirements of the International Standard for personnel certification

ISO/IEC 17024:2012;

To ensure that auditors meet or exceed the qualification guidelines for management
system auditors described in ISO 19011:2011 and are assessed as competent to perform
quality management system audits;

To assist organizations in selecting appropriately qualified auditors; and

To enhance the professional recognition of qualified auditors.
Auditors who wish to become certified by RABQSA should review this document and the
Personnel Certification Guide to better understand the certification requirements prior to
applying for certification.
If you have any remaining questions regarding personnel certification, please contact an
Examiner in your regions Principal Office. Exemplar Global Principal offices are located in:
Milwaukee, USA

Seoul, South Korea

Sydney, Australia

PO Box 602
Suite 301
600 N Plankinton Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0602

IATC Co., Ltd.

Room 406
ACE Techno Tower III 197-48
Guro3-dong, Guro-Gu
Seoul, South Korea

PO Box 347
Suite 12
308 High Street
Penrith, NSW 2750

+1-888-722-2440; or
+1-414-272-3937
Fax +1-414-765-8661

+82-2-855-7017

+61-2-4728-4600
Fax +61-2-4731-6466

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Grades of Certification
There are five grades of QMS Auditor certification:

Associate QMS Auditor

QMS Auditor

Principal QMS Auditor

Lead QMS Auditor

Business Improvement QMS Auditor

The Associate Auditor grade recognizes that an applicant has met the formal education,
training, and work experience requirements, but has not yet demonstrated the ability to
conduct QMS audits.
The Auditor grade recognizes that an applicant has demonstrated the qualifications to
conduct a QMS audit and perform as a member of an audit team.
The Principal Auditor grade recognizes that an applicant has demonstrated the
qualifications to conduct a QMS audit and perform either alone or as a member of an audit
team.
The Lead Auditor grade recognizes that an applicant has demonstrated the qualifications to
conduct a QMS audit and can lead an audit team.
The Business Improvement Auditor grade recognizes that an applicant has demonstrated
Lead Auditor qualifications and has knowledge of the application and benefits of business
improvement and risk management tools.

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Scopes of Certification
There are five scopes under QMS Auditor certification. These scopes are in addition to the
certification requirements shown within this document.
Applicants for scopes must provide evidence with their application related to their combined
indirect education, direct education, work experience, and audit experience specific to the
scope they seek. The following ratings are assigned for each type of evidence submitted,
and a final rating is calculated to determine the approval of a scope. A strong rating is
considered a 7 and a minimum rating of 4 is required before the scope can be awarded.

Indirect education: high/secondary school (1), technical/TAFE (1), university (2),

postgraduate (2)

Direct education: training (1), technical/TAFE (2), university (3), postgraduate (3)

Work experience: indirect (non scope-related) (1), direct 1-3 years (2), direct 4+
years (3)

Audit experience: 1-3 audits (1), 4-6 audits (2), 7+ audits (3)

Additional information on the Cattlecare or Flockcare Audit Scopes is available from

Example Global or the Australian National Cattlecare or Flockcare Coordinators.
SCOPE

TRAINING

WORK
EXPERIENCE

AUDITING
EXPERINCE

1. ISO 9001:2008
Audit

NA

NA

At least 16 audit days

using ISO 9001:2008
as the referenced
standard.

2. ISO 13485:2003
Audit*

ISO 13485:2003
Training

NA

At least 10 audit days

using ISO
13485:2003 as the
referenced standard.

3. ISO/IEC
17025:2005
Assessment*

ISO/IEC 17025:2005
Training

NA

At least 10 audit days

using ISO/IEC
17025:2005 as the
standard.

4. Cattlecare Audit*

Cattlecare Course

Relevant agricultural
industry experience

NA

5. Flockcare Audit*

Flockcare Course

Relevant agricultural
industry experience.

NA

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Knowledge Requirements
Applicants for each grade of QMS Auditor certification must provide evidence of
knowledge competency defined in the following TPECS Competency Units:
Associate, Auditor, and Principal QMS Auditor:
Management System Auditing (RABQSA-AU)
Auditing Quality Management Systems (RABQSA-QM)
Lead QMS Auditor:
Management System Auditing (RABQSA-AU)
Auditing Quality Management Systems (RABQSA-QM)
Leading Management System Audit Teams (RABQSA-TL)
Business Improvement QMS Auditor:
Management System Auditing (RABQSA-AU)
Auditing Quality Management Systems (RABQSA-QM)
Leading Management System Audit Teams (RABQSA-TL)
Advising on Organizational Improvement and Risk Management (RABQSA-OI)
EVIDENCE OF KNOWLEDGE-BASED COMPETENCY
All QMS Auditor Grades:
A certificate/s of attainment for the above Competency Units from a Certified TPECS
Training Provider, issued within the three years prior to application, is required. Applicants
whose Certificate is older than three years may be eligible to complete the RABQSA-QM ebased knowledge examination to demonstrate current knowledge.
Alternately, a Certificate of Successful Completion of a Certified QMS Auditor course (or
other certified QMS Auditor course recognized by RABQSA), together with successful
completion of the RABQSA-QM Gap Examination, will be accepted as evidence of the
knowledge requirements for the RABQSA-AU and RABQSA-QM Competency Units. For
Lead and Business Improvement Grades, the successful completion of the RABQSA-TL
Knowledge Examination will be accepted as evidence of the knowledge requirements for
RABQSA-TL and RABQSA-OI Competency Units.
Refer to the Personnel Certification Guide for details on knowledge examinations, TPECS
and TCC Training Providers and other certified training courses recognized by Exemplar
Global.
A register of Certified Training Providers is available at www.exemplarglobal.org.

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Qualification Requirements
Applicants for QMS Auditor certification must provide evidence of qualifications defined by
RABQSA in the following categories:
EVIDENCE OF EDUCATION:
Applicants for all QMS Auditor grades have completed secondary education or national
equivalent.
EVIDENCE OF WORK EXPERIENCE:
Applicants for all QMS Auditor grades must provide evidence of:

At least eight years work experience with secondary education; or

At least six years work experience with post-secondary (non-university) education; or

At least four years work experience with a University degree (Bachelors or higher).

In addition to the above work experience requirements, the following specific requirements
apply:
QMS Associate Auditor Grade:
Applicants must provide evidence of at least two years quality assurance work experience,
obtained in the four years prior to application.
QMS Auditor, Principal, Lead, and Business Improvement Auditor Grades:
Applicants must provide evidence of at least two years quality assurance work experience,
obtained in the four years prior to Application, in a technical or managerial position with
direct QMS management responsibilities.
Evidence of work experience must be verifiable and include:

Employer (including contact details);

Dates of employment; and

Roles, responsibilities (job description) and achievements.

ACCEPTABLE FORMS OF EVIDENCE:

Acceptable evidence of education and work experience will be in the form of a copy of the
applicants educational certificate and/or degree and a work resume or curriculum vitae. This
documentation is submitted with the application.

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Audit Experience Requirements

Applicants for QMS Auditor certification must provide evidence of audit experience defined
by RABQSA for each specific grade.
All audit days must be in accordance with the conditions for audit experience as described in
Personnel Certification Guide.
Associate QMS Auditor:
None
QMS Auditor:
Applicants for Auditor grade shall demonstrate twenty audit days. A maximum of six days
of off-site audit activity is allowed in these twenty days.
Included in the twenty audit days, an Applicant must demonstrate:

At least four complete QMS audits as a member of an audit team.

Principal QMS Auditor:

Applicants for Principal Auditor grade shall demonstrate twenty audit days. A maximum of
six days of off-site audit activity is allowed in these twenty days.
Included in the twenty audit days, an Applicant must demonstrate:

At least four complete QMS audits; and

At least ten audits days and two complete QMS audits as a solo auditor or a Team
Leader.

Lead or Business Improvement QMS Auditor:

Applicants for the Lead or Business Improvement Auditor grades shall demonstrate thirtyfive audit days. A maximum of ten days of off-site audit activity is allowed in these thirtyfive days.
Included in the thirty-five audit days, an Applicant must demonstrate:

At least seven complete QMS audits; and

At least fifteen audit days and three complete QMS audits as a Team Leader of
an audit team of at least one other auditor.

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Re-certification
To maintain certification, all certified auditors are required to demonstrate continuing
conformity with the current certification requirements for the grade of certification awarded.
Exemplar Global will provide reminders with an invoice for the Annual Certification Fee.
Every four years from the date of initial certification and each subsequent re-certification,
auditors must provide:

Evidence of 45 hours of Continual Professional Development (CPD) activities. CPD

logs are available www.exemplarglobal.org. Guidance is provided in the Personnel
Certification Guide.

Confirmation that the Code of Conduct has been adhered to and any complaints
against performance have been resolved.

Audit experience in accordance with the following:

Associate QMS Auditor: No audit experience required.

QMS Auditor: At least 6 QMS audits that total at least 15 audit days. At least
2 of these audits must be complete QMS audits.

Principal QMS Auditor: At least 6 QMS audits that total at least 15 audit
days. At least 2 of these audits must be complete QMS audits. At least 2 of
these audits must be performed either solo or as an audit team leader.

Lead or Business Improvement QMS Auditor: At least 6 QMS audits that

total at least 15 days. At least 2 of these audits must be complete audits. At
least 2 of these audits must be performed as an audit team leader.

For all grades that require audit experience at re-certification, a maximum of 6 days off-site
will be accepted in each re-certification period.
All audit days must be in accordance with the conditions for audit experience as described in
Personnel Certification Guide.

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