What is Accreditation?
Third-party verification related to a Training or Teaching Body and its Programs or Courses & third-party verification related to a Conformity Assessment Body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific Trainings and Conformity Assessment Tasks.
What is certification?
Third-party verification related to training, products, processes, systems or persons.
How do we recognise accreditation?
AIUK Accredited Training, Teaching & Certification Bodies are recognised by the use of the AIUK Accreditation Mark. The accreditation can be verified directly through AIUK either through the website or from asking directly on acb@accreditation-international.uk.
How do I check a company's certification?
You can either contact the certification body directly or use the "Verify" link in the menu bar above this page to search AIUK's Global Register.
Is it mandatory that an Accreditation Body be a member of International Accreditation Forum?
Absolutely not. There is no legislation - UK, European or Global - that says being part of IAF is mandatory. Under European free trade laws it is not legal for any country or group of countries to dictate any such legislation or legislate that there can only be 'one of any type' of organisation operating in any of its territories due to monopolies regulations.
How can I check the AIUK accreditation of a Training, Teaching, or Certification Body?
Use the "Verify" link in the menu bar above this page.
When verifying you will see the Accredited Training Courses and the Standards the Bodies are accredited to.
Is the certificate issued by an AIUK Accredited Certification Body for my organisation going to be recognised in other countries?
The decision for recognition of certificates issued by accredited bodies by any country is left to the respective countries recognition process. All potential clients of accredited bodies should verify this if required. To this point we are not aware of any certificate issued by an AIUK Training or Certification Body being rejected by any country or indeed any organisation.
What would be the cost of accreditation?
The costings comprise of an application fee and assessment fees with on going surveillance fees, travel, etc. Please refer to our rates and terms and conditions or contact Wendy Brise at AIUK via email wendy.b@accreditation-international.uk. AIUK will always provide a quotation prior to the accreditation process.
What is the time period taken for the entire accreditation process?
Applications are sent to the AIUK applications team and managed on a first come first served basis. Lead times of one to two working days can be expected before the first response is received. The accreditation process involves a document review, pre-assessment, final assessment and subsequent accreditation. At each of these stages, comments and improvement opportunities can be raised by the AIUK Lead assessor or the assessment team. These should be responded to by the applicant body as soon as is possible as not to slow down the process. Due to number of processes involved and the diversity of different organisations processes it is not simple to put a precise time frame for the complete accreditation cycle. Nevertheless, AIUK will be able to provide you with an approximate time frame once we have all the required details. 'How to get accredited' explains more on this matter.