60 second interview:
The Chartered Quality Institute
 |
We talk to the CQI’s policy adviser about the organization that owns IRCA, how it is promoting quality and why IRCA auditors should consider joining |
Can you tell me about the history of the CQI?
The institute was formed in London in 1919 by a group of army officers who were concerned about the dangerously poor quality of ammunitions. We have progressed over the years from being an institute of inspection through an institute of quality control and then quality assurance. Now we have moved to total quality management and we cover a wide spectrum of interests as defined by our Body of Quality Knowledge.
You are a membership organization, who are your members?
Over the years our membership has grown and we now have around 10,000 CQI members who work within the quality profession predominantly as quality managers, quality practitioners, consultants and auditors. Although in terms of administration we remain based in the UK, we have worldwide membership.
About ten per cent of our members are from outside the UK with a concentration of members in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Since September 2008 the CQI has been able to offer chartered status to its members, giving the same status as other chartered professionals. 4,120 of our members are now chartered quality professionals.
The CQI’s vision is to ‘put quality at the heart of every organization’. How are you working towards this aim?
Essentially we are achieving this through our membership and by encouraging organizations and individuals to learn about the fundamental principles of quality. We provide our members with the knowledge, skills and competences to bring quality into their organizations. They then bring the energy, the creativity and the enthusiasm to inspire their own organization to really embrace quality at its heart. You can learn more from our video Making Business Better.
How do you help your members to gain these skills?
For anyone looking to further their knowledge of quality tools and practices, we offer two qualifications the CQI Certificate and the CQI Diploma – which are taught in colleges around the UK and can also be earned through distance learning. The institute also runs a wide range of training courses on topics across the whole of the Body of Quality Knowledge, so members can come along and learn or refresh a competency. The course and qualifications we offer allow members to upgrade their skills and help their organizations.
You have mentioned the Body of Quality Knowledge. What is it?
The Body of Quality Knowledge is the framework of knowledge of which we expect a quality professional to have a reasonable grasp. The framework is broken down into four levels, each taking the depth of knowledge a little further.
The first level simply sets out the six areas in which knowledge must be gained and the second level expands to give more detail in each of these areas. This has now been extended further to levels three and four. Level four is a resource available only for members wanting to learn more about a particular aspect of the Body of Quality Knowledge. They are able to access articles, reading lists and other sources of information and learn about a subject in a lot more detail.
What are the links between IRCA and the CQI? How are the two organizations working together?
In very simple terms the CQI owns IRCA. The CQI created IRCA in 1984 at the request of the UK government to provide a way of assessing the competences of auditors. With few other auditor qualifications around the world IRCA’s reputation spread and as a result IRCA is a global organization first and foremost and a UK second – the opposite of the CQI. Up until recently IRCA and the CQI had an arms-length relationship because the CQI ran IRCA certified training courses. This changed recently and the two organizations have merged their administration and are working more closely.
Why should IRCA members consider joining the CQI?
Being an IRCA auditor is a qualification that means that you are competent to do a certain aspect of a quality professional’s remit or role – the auditing role. For those auditors wanting to broaden their competency set or progress to another area of the quality profession, then joining the CQI can help them to gain new skills and have those skills recognised. A greater understanding of the fundamental principles of quality can help auditors perform better as well as broadening their marketability if they want to change jobs in the future.
IRCA lead auditors with significant experience are also able to take advantage of a special route to membership. Such auditors can join via our experiential route that exempts them from a large number of the base requirements.
Why is quality so important for businesses?
Businesses now compete in a global marketplace, where customers can compare prices across the globe very quickly. Organizations need to be able to differentiate what they offer and the three key fundamentals are price, delivery and quality. Quality is about improving product quality, improving the processes by which product is produced and delivered and reducing the costs of production and delivery. All of this is within quality. If an organization does not address quality it will be very difficult for it to compete in the global marketplace.
For more information about the Chartered Quality Institute visit www.thecqi.org
 |
 Have an issue to raise? A question to ask? Give us your opinions now in the Online Forums. |