Whilst in isolation from Covid-19 and during the lockdown period, AvISO Consultancy were approached by SGS Academy and offered training in some key ISO Lead Auditor Courses. We took SGS up, on their training offer, and I applied for the FSSC 22000 Food Safety Management System Lead Auditor training.
The ISO 22000:2005 sets out the overall, guidelines/requirements for food safety management systems. In simple terms, ISO 22000 specifies the requirements for a Food Safety System to demonstrate that food safety hazards are controlled, so food is safe at the time of human consumption.
Globally, FSSC 22000 is one of the leading Food Safety Management Systems, and GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) Approved Certification Schemes. To clarify the FSSC is made up of three different guidelines:
· ISO 22000:2018
· PD ISO/TS 22002-1:2009
· FSSC22000 Version 5 2019
The course was carried out over five days, in which we covered ten sessions ranging from:
· Introduction of the FSMS (Food Safety Management System)
· The audit process
· Preparing for an onsite audit
· Conducting an audit and following up
Details of ISO 22000 and induction papers were supplied by SGS before the course, which allowed you to become familiar with the standard.
The course required you to conduct role plays in situations where your auditing experience was tested. As this was all done remotely, the interaction part of the course was missing. However, SGS’ experience in remote workshops paid off as the agenda was delivered extremely well, with visual aids and continuously mixing up teams of people. SGS’ virtual meeting software allows you to have breakout rooms with notice boards, to collectively write down answers and questions. You were then brought back into the main virtual meeting to discuss your findings. Unlike most lead auditor courses the exam was booked a month after the course, so in this time it was paramount to review all notes made and study the FSSC standards (provided by SGS).
SGS did provide a refresher training day which was helpful, especially with instructions about the online exam. I was pleased that I listened to their advice as the exam was quite technical, as expected in a lead auditor course.
The exam was an online platform hosted by SGS that was easy to navigate through. You could start on the last questions if you wanted to. The main issue for myself was the time you had for the exam. If it were pen and paper, I would have been a little bit quicker, but because you are working straight on the platform, time just vanished. However, I did complete the exam, and I gained the Lead Auditor certificate! Thanks to all at SGS Academy who contributed to the course.
Please contact us to find out more about how we can help you in gaining certification to ISO Standards or with Software, Training and Consultancy solutions and one of our team will be more than happy to discuss this, and our flexible pricing options, with you.
