NQA Interview with Archie Gemmell

In this video, Adam Faiers from ISO Compliance Register interviews Archie Gemmell, Field Director at NQA, a leading UKAS/ANAB accredited certification body who provide certification, training and support services for ISO standards.

In this section of the interview, we asked about the development journey of an auditor within NQA to find out the full process an auditor goes through, from being hired and doing training to becoming a fully-fledged auditor. This video provides some great insight into what it’s like to be an NQA auditor, which would be very useful for anyone considering pursuing a career with them. 

The goal for the training is to build the auditor’s confidence via experience such as shadow days, while also building NQA’s confidence in the auditor’s ability. A witness audit, if passed, is the end of the training. However, if auditors do not pass, they continue training in response to any non-conformities raised. This creates a supportive training and learning process for new auditors.  

We also talked about the varied backgrounds of auditors, which has improved in recent years. The age demographic of auditors has lowered, which in many ways adds more value due to recent experience and engagement.