Clause 6.2.2 Competence, awareness and training

“Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed”

Thomas More ((English Humanist, Statesman and Chancellor of England, 1477-1535) 

Employees need to be aware of the relevance and importance of their activities and how they contribute to the achievement of the quality objectives. In order for an organization to have qualified/competent people within, it should consider the following steps:

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  Determine the competency (and training needs) for personnel performing work affecting conformity to product requirements. The competence and training of people in an organization needs to be reviewed relative to the required (needed) competence and training. This should not only be done for new employees, but also for existing employees. There should be a mechanism for identifying needs on regular basis. One way this can be done by performance evaluations.


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  Provide training to address identified needs. Once the need of training is established, the training should actually be provided.


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  Evaluate the effectiveness of training. Training is never a goal in itself. On a regular basis companies should ask: was the training effective in accomplishing its goals?

Records (4.2.4) must be kept covering all education, training, skills and experience for each employee. These records can be kept in any form: training logs, certificates, training matrices, resumes etc.

Training can be done in any form: internally or externally, formal or informal, classroom or on-the-job. Companies must determine their own training needs and provide the training.

In the year 2000 edition standard required providing competent persons only if their work affected product quality. That was again taken as performance affecting product quality directly. Organizations defined competence requirement for persons working in quality department and production/service department, because only their work affects product quality directly.
In 2008, standard replaced the term "product quality" with "conformity to product requirements". This is not a small change. Infrastructure (6.3) and work environment (6.4) are required as may be needed to meet "conformity to product requirements" even in year 2000 edition of the standard. But in clause 6.2.1 and 6.2.2 which deals with human resources competency was required limited to meeting needs of "product quality".

Product requirements are determined under the purview of clause 7.2.1 which includes requirements specified by customer, needed but not specified by customer, delivery requirements, statutory and regulatory requirements, etc.

To meet the requirement of 2008 edition you are now required to define and ensure competence requirement of dispatch personnel, maintenance personnel and all other processes which are covered in quality management system because directly or indirectly all processes of QMS affects conformity to product requirements as covered in 7.2.1.

It is advisable to have an annual training plan and provide training as planned. Do not forget to add process oriented trainings, internal auditor training, safety training, fire extinguisher operation training etc. These may not be mandatory within the purview of ISO 9001 certification but always beneficial for the organization.

On the job training records can be made as a summary report from the supervisor, giving period of training. Though standard does not require a documented procedure for how to improve the competence or provide training but having one always helps and allows proper coordination between various departments.

Have induction training schedules for new recruits and put them on the job (preferably) only after proper induction and training. The objective is that new recruits should get acquainted with the new atmosphere.

External Document Reference: Documentation Kit

Training Specifications

Competence requirement for Human resources

Skill Matrix

Determining Skill level for Leadership

Determining Skill Level for Internal Auditor

Responsibility and authority

Employee Card Sample 1

Employee Card Sample 2

Training Need Identification

Training Attendance sheet

Yearly Training Plan