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The NLA is pleased to announce the availability of the MetCert Certification Scheme for Metrologists and Calibration Technicians.
Many technicians will recall the Certificate of Competence (CoC) which was introduced in the early days of accreditation, will also be aware that this activity was taken over by SANAS in 1998 and has continued to run until the present time. The current program, although still active, is not as popular as was the case a number of years ago, principally because the CoC is no longer a prerequisite to becoming a Technical Signatory in a Calibration Laboratory.
The result of this is that the SANAS assessors are required to spend more time in a laboratory assessing the competence of a technical signatory which costs both SANAS and the laboratory time and money. The NLA thus believe there is a need to re-introduce a voluntary, formalised CoC scheme which will maintain the expected level of competence, and differentiate between certified members and those who are new to the industry.
The current International regulations do not allow SANAS to be involved in a registration scheme as well as being the relevant assessor of the competence of that individual in the laboratory, during assessment by SANAS. In principle, the two activities need to be totally separate, where there is no chance of a conflict of interests.
Information regarding why MetCert was established, how it achieves its objectives as well as the prices for the remainder of 2011 can be downloaded from the above menu by clicking on the MetCert button. A new Application Form in also available and prospective applicants should carefully work through the various documents before attempting to complete an application form.
The NLA looks forward to receiving applications and will respond as soon as possible
*Personnel Certification.
“Certification of persons is one means of providing assurance that the certified person meets the requirements of the certification scheme.
However, it is necessary to distinguish between situations where certification schemes for persons are justified and situations where other forms of qualification are more appropriate. The development of new certification schemes for persons, in response to the ever-increasing velocity of technological innovation and growing specialization of personnel, may compensate for variations in education and training and thus facilitate the global job market.
In contrast to other types of conformity assessment bodies, such as management system certification/registration bodies, one of the characteristic functions of the personnel certification body is to conduct an examination, which uses objective criteria for competence and scoring.“
Reference: ISO/IEC 17024:2003
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