The International Accreditation Service (IAS) is the first accreditation body globally to have its Personnel Certification Body (commonly abbreviated as ‘PCB’ or ‘Persons’) accreditation program recognized under the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC). This is a result of a detailed and stringent evaluation conducted by PAC evaluators in August 2015 that included a review of the IAS management system, witnessing of IAS assessors performing PCB assessments, and completing corrective actions raised by the PAC experts.
IAS will go on to achieve full signatory status of its PCB program when the (PAC) Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) is signed in June at the Joint PAC Plenary/APLAC General Assembly meetings in Taipei, Taiwan. The PAC recognition of IAS for accrediting personnel certification bodies enables IAS clients to enjoy global recognition and acceptance of their IAS-endorsed accredited personnel certifications.
PAC is one of the three major regional accreditation groups that operate within the framework of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF; www.iaf.nu). The other groups currently admitted under IAF are European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA) and InterAmerican Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC). PAC is a regional cooperation body formed by an association of accreditation bodies and other interested parties whose objective is to facilitate trade and commerce among economies in the Asia Pacific region. PAC promotes the international acceptance of accreditations granted by its accreditation body members, based on the equivalence of their accreditation programs.
“We believe that the PAC recognition, coupled with IAS’s focus on customer service will help deliver greater value and provide more opportunities for our customers,” said IAS President Chuck Ramani. “We are very pleased that PAC has recognized the IAS Personnel Certification Body Accreditation Program and more so the fact that IAS is the very first body within the Asia Pacific region to receive such recognition.”
The IAS Personnel Certification Body Accreditation Program is based on ISO/IEC Standard 17024 (2012) General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons and IAS Accreditation Criteria for Bodies Operating Certification of Persons (AC474 available on the IAS website http://www.iasonline.org/Personnel/docs.html). IAS accredits PCBs that certify personnel based on their professional competency and the program is managed by Dr. David Nelson, IAS Program Director, dnelson@iasonline.org.
“The PAC MLA status is a significant achievement and will be extremely valuable to clients and the ICC,” said ICC Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims. “The IAS team has worked diligently to reach this goal, and my congratulations go out to all of them for their efforts.”
Accreditation is a formal, independent verification that a program, institution, or company meets established quality standards and is competent to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks. Accreditation has been used for more than 50 years as the definitive means to evaluate organizations.
Accreditation by IAS demonstrates that personnel certification bodies have been assessed and found to be competent to certify personnel to serve national and international needs of governmental regulatory bodies and diverse industries concerned with personnel competency through the use of uniform standards, schemes and best practices. Accreditation also provides PCB’s with greater confidence that their certifications meet legal and technical requirements imposed by regulators and/or specifiers at global, national and local levels.
A recognized accreditation body since 1975, IAS is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation and part of the International Code Council Family of Companies. IAS is one of the leading accreditation bodies in the United States and a signatory to several international mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs). IAS accredits more than 850 organizations, including personnel certification bodies, testing and calibration laboratories, product certification agencies, management system certification bodies, inspection agencies, special inspection agencies, inspection programs for metal building manufacturers, metal building assembler inspection programs, fabricator inspection programs, training agencies, curriculum developers, field evaluation bodies, fire prevention and life safety departments, building departments, and building department service providers.
For more information about IAS accreditation programs, visit www.iasonline.org/.
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