Workshop to Increase the Competence of Assessors

The workshop entitled Job-Task Analysis Meeting was held in Mexico City in the period between 26 and 29th January 2010, and was organised by the IAF (International Accreditation Forum) and in cooperation with the Professional Testing Inc., Orlando, Florida.

The workshop was carried out in the facilities of the Mexican Accreditation Body, Entidad Mexicana Nacionales e Internacionales (EMA) .

Professional Testing Inc. provides services of assessment, evaluation and certification of personnel. The organisation provides efficient, appropriate, precise and reliable assessment of services by helping the industry, professional associations and certification agencies/personnel licensing agencies to provide competent personnel and make their assessment of personnel sustainable and reliable.

The workshop was hosted by Cynthia D. Woodley, PhD in psychometrics, that performs scientific methods used for measuring mental capabilities and processes. The term “psychometrics” refers to the measurement of psychological attributes of individuals, including knowledge, skills and professional capabilities that they must have to perform certain jobs or professions.

During the workshop duties of assessors were analysed, given that they perform assessment on behalf of accreditation bodies as per accreditation standards and normative documents by means of documentary review and on-site assessments and/or witnessing of conformity assessment activities performed by conformity assessment bodies.

Basic tasks within the defined duties of assessors were identified through planning activities relating to assessments, documentary reviews, on-site assessments (at CABs locations and at locations where conformity assessment activities are performed), reporting and other post-assessment activities. In case of each of the tasks, knowledge, skills and capabilities of assessors are clearly defined, as well as reference documents that assessors must be acquainted with and that are needed for the implementation of each task.

At the end of the workshop, the document entitled “Accreditation Body Assessor (General Competencies)” was produced and will be verified in an adequate manner by means of the defined IAF procedure.

The Accreditation Board of Serbia will use this document in 2010 as part of training programme for assessors and technical experts.

In addition to representatives from Serbia, this workshop was attended by 24 representatives of accreditation bodies worldwide (United Kingdom, Holland, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Mexico, Philippines, China, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, United States of America, Italy, Switzerland and Japan), and representatives of SGS, ANSI  (American National Standards Institute) and A2LA (American Association of Laboratory Accreditation).