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A Personnel Certification Body is an organization that awards credentials to individuals meeting specific competence requirements relating to a profession, an occupation, a job or a portion of a job. A personnel certification body develops criteria against which an individual needs to demonstrate competencies and ensures that these criteria are held by applicants before certifying them.
Most personnel certification bodies offer professional certification if an individual meets requirements such as a minimum number of years of related working experience, minimum education level and having passed a certification exam or equivalent.
Many personnel certification bodies are accredited by accrediting bodies to the
ISO/IEC 17024
ISO/IEC 17024: Conformity assessment - General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons is an International Standard which specifies criteria for the operation of a personnel certification body (also known as a 'certification ...
standard, which was designed to harmonize the personnel certification process worldwide. Most are not.
Accreditation
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
means having gone through a validation process or ''assessment'' from a national accreditation body such as the American National Standards Institute
ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
UKAS
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) is the sole national accreditation body recognised by the British government to assess the competence of organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. It e ...