In November 1989 the very first SQT public training course was held in The Dromineer Bay Hotel, Nenagh and this is what the first booking system looked like…

Delegate No 3 was me.  Early SQT customers included Kostal, EI Shannon, Irish Cement, Pfizer, Alps Electric, Apple and Dairygold Co-op and I’m delighted to say that all are still valued customers 25 years on.

Obviously very few companies can exist on one product alone so over the years, many more expert tutors from industry have come on board, helping SQT to expand into lots of new areas of learning.

In 2001 Shannon Quality Training officially became SQT Training Ltd and towards the end of that year, I packed my bags as Operations Manager in Dell and proudly joined the SQT team as Managing Director.   Since then the team has grown to 35 very talented and hard-working tutors, all supported by 9 wonderfully dedicated office staff with lots of computerised booking systems.  To date we have trained in excess of 50,000 people from  small to medium companies to large multinationals both here and abroad.  This year so far we have trained in 22 counties in Ireland as well Denmark, UK, Isle of Man, Libya, Spain and USA.

The world of training has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. When SQT started out the overhead projector was in vogue and not a smart phone in sight – now every delegate has at least one device in their pocket with access to vast amounts of free information at the touch of a button.  Back in 1989 the internet was still in its infancy; Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and online learning were not even early concepts.  25 years on the training choices and learning mediums  available to people are truly vast.

However when you really think about it, SQTs’ challenge today is no different to that faced 25 years ago.  As professional trainers our job is still to help you understand the important stuff from the vast amounts of information out there, it’s about making learning real, it’s about engaging with you in a very practical way and empowering you with knowledge and skills to make a difference.

The overhead projector is long gone but we still have highly experience, industry experts delivering up-to-date training through direct communication, collaboration, analyses, critical thinking and problem solving…with the help of some clever technology!.

Not so long ago Mary Robinson said “we have 2 decades to save the world from permanent Climate Change”, so my wish for the next 25 years is for us all to stay cool, keep evolving and learning and together, mind the important stuff so that 25 years on we are all still here….still learning, still sharing.

Thanks for your continued support.

This is an excellent event with many great speakers so worth noting in diaries.

See http://www.nsai.ie/NSAI-Quality-in-Ireland-2014.aspx for more details.

Many people would be very critical of the fact that BRC auditing over the past number of years has focussed too much on the actual documented Food Safety Management System (FSMS) as opposed to getting down onto the factory floor to see what is actually going on. Combine this with the reality that the vast majority of BRC Food Safety audits have been announced, raises questions as to the value of the audit for major UK/Irish and International retailers.

The new unannounced split audit option of:
– Day 1 Factory floor unannounced
– Day 2 Systems audit announced,
allows companies to demonstrate that their manufacturing environment is up to best practice standards every day, and that we have nothing to fear from our customers/certification bodies inspecting us any day. The announced systems audit allows FBOs (Food Business Operators) to demonstrate that they have best practice FSMS, which is effectively controlling the hazards which exist in the manufacturing environment.

In today’s business environment, many organisations incorporate a number of management systems, such as quality, environmental, occupational health & safety and information security. As a result, these organisations want to harmonise and, where possible, combine the auditing of these systems.
Compared to the first edition of the standard published in 2002 which applied only to ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environment), the scope of ISO 19011:2011, Guidelines for auditing management systems, has been expanded to reflect current thinking and the complexities of auditing multiple management system standards (MSS).

The new standard aims to help user organisations to optimise and facilitate the integration of their management systems and, in facilitating a single audit of its systems, will streamline the audit processes, reduce duplication of effort and decrease disruption of work units being audited.

Specific attention is given to the implementation of the audit programme. By fully applying these guidelines, the prerequisites are provided to make auditing a crucial tool for top management to achieve the objectives of the organisation and add-value.

ISO 19011:2011 provides guidance on the conduct of internal or external management system audits, as well as on the management of audit programmes. Intended users of this International Standard include auditors, audit team leaders, audit programme managers, organisations implementing management systems, and organisations needing to conduct audits of management systems for contractual or regulatory reasons.

Alister Dalrymple, Convenor of the team that updated the guidelines, described the benefits which the new standard is expected to bring to users and the improvements made compared to the 2002 edition it replaces:
ISO 19011:2011 has been revised to provide auditors, organisations implementing management systems and organisations needing to conduct audits of management systems an opportunity to re-assess their own practices and identify improvement opportunities.

Compared to the 2002 version, the standard adds the concept of risk and recognises more explicitly the competence of the audit team and individual auditors. Also, the use of technology in remote auditing is acknowledged, for example, conducting remote interviews and reviewing records remotely.”

Another improvement is the clarification of the relationship between ISO 19011:2011 and ISO/IEC 17021:2011, Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems. While those involved in management system certification audits follow the requirements of ISO/IEC 17021:2011, they might also find the guidance in this International Standard useful.

This post has been adapted from information published on the International Organisation for Standardisation website

They consist of a 15 credit, Level 6, Special Purpose award, Documented Management Systems which is made up of a mandatory minor, Characteristics of Management Systems, and one of the following minors:
Quality Management Systems
Environmental Management Systems
Health and Safety Management Systems

The draft standards are now up on the FETAC website for comment by interested parties. Here is a link to the page. Instructions as to how you can provide feedback are included.

If these standards are of interest to you/your company, now is the chance to contribute your feedback before the standards are published. Time is of the essence as the opportunity for feedback will only be about 10 days.

It is planned to develop further related standards in the future.

How many times have we heard our political masters pontificate on the ‘Millions of Euro we have invested in our Health Service?’  … that’s all fine and well but it doesn’t address the ‘So what’ of the investment – i.e., is it money well spent and for example have we seen an improvement in the following measurements?

• A substantial (versus the best European performance) reduction in the number of people on waiting lists, year on year
• A substantial (versus the best European performance) increase in the number of people successfully accessing our health services, year on year
• A substantial (versus the best European performance) reduction in the average time to successfully use our health services and also the variation around that average, again year on year

Accurate measurements and trustworthy data are the heartbeat of any successful improvement effort but instead of giving you the technical jargon how about the following commonsense …

This ditty is something I learned in my first job back in the mid-eighties from a wise old quality practitioner.

If you measure then you must record,

If you record then you must analyse,

If you analyse, then you must take action,

If you take action, you must follow-up to check for effectiveness,

If you follow-up, you must close-out!

It’s a bit like what Magnus Magnuson says – ‘I’ll start so I’ll finish’ – you have to close the loop otherwise it is just wasted time and resource.