Afternoon, As far as training goes, how would a company go about being accredited to issue certificates to candidates? (not in-house) i.e. a company wants to start offering training courses (using competent trainers) but would like to issue the certificates themselves as opposed to paying the trainer to do this. Hope that makes sense, Thanks!

Luke Answering your question well requires understanding of your purpose in accrediting, since the value of 'accreditation' depends on the standing of the accrediting authority in the minds of those you want to influence. The process of an accredited training course CAN be as simply as: a. appointing a credible trainer b. publicising the course in a credible and truthful way that you are prepared to defend in public c arranging for the credible trainer to deliver a desired course with a specific title (indicating the scope) and date or dates (indicating the amount of contact time) d. the credible trainer testing the learners to assess how well they have learned e. the credible trainer signing a document which confirms that those learners who have reached a criterion of understanding the course matter (theory and/or practice) have actually done so

Luke, I see no problem in issuing a certificate saying that an individual attended a training course on a particular subject on these dates. Anybody with a computer and very simple software can mock up a very pretty cert in no time. Once you take that further step in saying that an individual is now competent etc you need to be very sure that you yourself are competent to make that judgement and be able to prove competence if challenged. The extent of the process depends very much on the subject matter e.g. training and certificating competence in changing a machine tool is a very different matter from issuing a licence to a publican to dispense alcholic drinks and both are "small beer" when compared to a medical school granting an anaesthetist a ticket to gas people. I think therefore I am agreeing with Kieran.

Luke, The simplest way is to apply to the appropriate awarding bodies that you wish to deliver courses for and comply with their individual requirements and of course pay the appropriate fees.