Certification is considered a mark of quality excellence in many industries. It helps you advance your career, and boosts your organization’s bottom line through your mastery of quality skills. Becoming certified as a Quality Auditor confirms your commitment to quality and the positive impact it will have on your organization.
YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO
The Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) is a professional who understands the standards and principles of auditing and the auditing techniques of examining, questioning, evaluating, and reporting to determine a quality system’s adequacy and deficiencies. The Certified Quality Auditor analyzes all elements of a quality system and judges its degree of adherence to the criteria of industrial management and quality evaluation and control systems.
IMPORTANT COURSE INFORMATION
Education or Experience
You must have eight years of on-the job experience in one or more of the areas of the Certified Quality Auditor Body of Knowledge. A minimum of three years of this experience must be in a decision-making position. “Decision-making” is defined as the authority to define, execute, or control projects/processes and to be responsible for the outcome. This may or may not include management or supervisory positions.
If you were ever certified by ASQ as a Quality Engineer, Reliability Engineer, Software Quality Engineer, Supplier Quality Professional, or Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence, experience used to qualify for certification in these fields applies to certification as a Quality Auditor.
Exam
Computer Delivered – The CQA examination is a one-part, 165-multiple-choice-question, five-and-a-half-hour exam and is offered in English only. One hundred and fifty questions are scored and 15 are unscored.
The exam consists of Part 1 and Part 2. Exam schedule – twice a year – November and May. You are eligible for Part 2 only after Part 1 successfully completed.
Examinations will continue to present a number of case studies. Each case study will include a brief scenario outlining critical details about an audit situation. In addition, each case study will be supported by related audit documents. The documents will be contained in a separate booklet “Confidential Audit Documents – CQA Case Studies” that will be part of the test materials distributed at the examination. Approximately 15-20 percent (25-30 questions) of the test will be devoted to these case studies. Although the questions related to these cases will use the same four-choice answer format as the rest of the test, the use of scenario details and sample documents will allow the candidates to apply their critical thinking skills in evaluating realistic situations and accompanying documents, memos, etc.
COURSE OUTLINE