Training participants together with the facilitators Dr. David Crucefix (middle) and Mr. Brahim Houla (4th from left) and PAB secretariat Dir. Ernani Dionisio and Ms. Ma. Juanita Carpio, pose with their certificates, marking the completion of their three-day training.

The Philippines through the Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) hosted a three-day training on Accredited Certification of Processes sponsored by the Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) for member economies.  The event was held on November 15 to 17, 2018 at The Legend Villas in Mandaluyong City. Sixteen participants from accreditation bodies in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam attended the training.

The course focused on the accredited certification of processes in accordance to ISO/IEC 17065:2012 and ISO/IEC TR 17032 conformity assessments.  An understanding of the standards and how the requirements can be consistently assessed and implemented by process certification bodies was facilitated through practical examples and class exercises.  ISO/IEC 17065 sets the requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services while ISO/IEC TR 17032 provides the guidelines and examples of a certification scheme for processes which is currently under development by ISO/CASCO Working Group 52. The training / seminar also covered the accredited certification for agricultural, organic and halal production processes.

The training also served as a venue for exchange of knowledge and experiences among participants from the different economies. It validated and calibrated the standard interpretation and provided tips and techniques in carrying out assessment by citing actual examples both from the speakers and the participants. 

The training was handled by Dr. David Crucefix and Mr. Brahim Houla. Dr. Crucefix is the Executive Director for operation of the International Organic and Sustainable Accreditation (IOAS), a non-profit organization supporting organic and ecologically-sound standards and labelling systems benefiting people’s livelihoods and sustainability of the environment. Mr. Houla is the Accreditation Services Manager for the GCC Accreditation Center (GAC). He is also an Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) peer evaluator. PAB served as the secretariat for the duration of the event.

PAC is an association of accreditation bodies and other related bodies which aims at facilitating trade among the economies in the Asia Pacific Region.  Through PAC, a global system of international recognition of certification, registration, management systems, products, services, personnel and other programs of conformity assessment among member-economies is made possible. 

The Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is a member signatory of PAC.  It is the national accreditation body of the Philippines that accredits testing, inspection and certification bodies, and other bodies offering conformity assessment services. 

For more information on the schedule of other training, please visit  http://www.apec-pac.org/training.