ARCHIVE NEWS

ISO 14001 Internal Audit Systems under Scrutiny (January 2014)

With the revisions to ISO 14001 well underway, many of the changes and structural interconnections being considered will potentially require a more comprehensive understanding and support for the process at all organisational levels and as such could have a significant impact on an organisation’s internal audit system.  The question then is ....how do you measure up?

As organisations have begun to realise that they need to ensure their internal audit system is robust enough to cope with the future demands of ISO 14001, Excel Partnership has been asked by its customers for support in this area.

In response to these needs, Excel has developed a 2-day EMS Internal Auditing course to provide participants from all levels of an organisation with an overview of the internal audit process. Although Excel has an IEMA-Approved ISO 14001 Internal Auditor course which runs over 3-days, not all companies require either the qualification aspect that an approved course provides, or such in-depth and time-rich training.

Both auditing courses reflect the current ISO 14001:2004 standard and will continue to do so until the formal release of the revised standard targeted for mid 2015. From that date, organisations certified to ISO 14001:2004 will be granted a grace period to implement the revisions, currently envisioned as 3 years.

By offering a 2-day training course, Excel is able to provide its customers with a broader choice of options to help them closer align their training needs with their business needs whist considering the impact of time and cost to the business. Without the required examination of an IEMA-approved course, time can be given to broadening depth of knowledge, enabling delegates to take this information back into their organisations where they can then decide on how, and on what basis, they identify the necessary competencies to appoint internal auditors and establish or benchmark their own internal audit system.

“The course will address the increasingly important significance of the internal audit system that the revisions to ISO 14001 will require from both its integrity and the competency of the auditors,” says Geoff Doole, Excel’s Managing Partner. “Suppliers listening to their own customers are determining that, in the first instance, ensuring an effective and fully-encompassing internal audit system is what they need to focus on achieving,” Geoff continues.

For companies whose suppliers are demanding full ISO 14001 certification, the approved training options are still available. Participants who then wish to achieve formal auditor registration can, at whatever appropriate level with IEMA, use this course as a basis to enrol on the IEMA-Approved three day EMS Internal Auditor Course or the Lead Environmental Auditor Course, both of which have examinations and satisfy the training requirements of IEMA’s Environmental Auditors Register.

All Excel’s training courses reflect current Management System Standard’s and are revised accordingly as new revisions are released. We endeavour to facilitate our customer’s transitions to new versions by incorporating requirements and interpretations within news bulletins and within our auditing training courses, as well as publishing Comparison Documents.

Dates and venues for the new 2-day EMS Internal Auditing course can be found on our calendar on our website.