ISO 10015 provides guidelines for quality management in training. The article discusses the use of ISO 10015 and other quality standards for training in different countries. It argues that while ISO 9000 provides generic quality guidelines, sector-specific standards may better meet the needs of the training industry and its customers. Country reports on Switzerland, Sweden, and Russia show that while ISO 9000 and ISO 10015 are used, there is a trend towards sector-specific standards for training quality assurance.

1. I N TE RN ATI O NAL
Quality management in training
generic or sector-specific ?
This article includes several country reports on the use – or lack of it – made of ISO 10015,
Quality management – Guidelines for training. It is not restricted to description alone,
since the principal author argues against “ the party line ” which defends generic standards
and advocates a sector-specific approach to training quality standards without which, he
maintains, the customer may no longer shop at ISO.
Market value of training BY D R . R AYMOND S ANER
Rapid technological change, con-
Dr. Raymond Saner, (second
tinuous product improvement and from right) author of the
relentless competition require compa- ISO 10015 overview which
nies continuously to upgrade the com- makes up the first part of this
petence levels of their human article and the country report
resources. As a consequence, consider- on Switzerland, is former Swiss
able amounts of money are spent on member of ISO/TC 176/ SC 3/
WG 4, which developed the ISO
training worldwide. For example, US 10015 guidelines for quality
employers in the private sector spent management in training, and a
USD 55,3 billion on formal training member of SNV, the Swiss
in 1995, representing USD 569 per national standards institute.
employee annually. In 2001, the figure results: acquisition of skills and He is Director of the Centre for
was USD 677 per employee 1). know-how, improved company per- Socio-Eco-Nomic Development
Within the context of the interna-
(CSEND).
formance and productivity, and
tional trade in services, the estimated increased behavioural competencies Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic
global market for international high- of students and trainees – not simple Development (CSEND),
er education in 1995 was estimated at output figures, e.g. the number of P.O. Box 1498, Mont Blanc,
USD 27 billion 2). These figures would employees trained. 1211 Geneva 1, Switzerland.
be considerably higher if other sub- In the end, it is the outcome meas- Tel. + 41 22 906 1720.
sectors such as primary, secondary, ures which determine whether or not Fax + 41 22 738 1737.
tertiary and adult education were a given education and training system E-mail saner@csend.org
included. is effective or ineffective – reflected Web www.csend.org
or not in the increase of economic and
social development at national level,
Assuring quality in training 1) American Society for Training &
or the increase of productivity at
Experts know the difficulties of enterprise level. Development (ASTD), Washington,
determining return on investment Faced with increasingly scarce www.astd.org
(ROI) in the field of training and training budgets and growing demands 2) Educational Services, background
education. Efficient, yet ineffective for training and retraining, it appears note by WTO Secretariat, Geneva,
September 1998.
systems of education and in-service evident to employers, employees and
training exist in many countries providers of training and educational 3) Saner, Raymond; Strehl, Franz;
Yiu, Lichia; “In-Service Training as
(Saner, Strehl, Yiu, 1997) 3). It would services that the quality of training an instrument for Organisational
be misleading to look at the educa- needs to be assured in order to achieve Change in Public Administration”,
tion and training sector as if it were a the highest possible ROI from train- International Institute of Adminis-
beauty contest. What matters are the ing programmes and activities and, in trative Sciences, Brussels, 1997.
ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002 53

2. INTERNATIONAL
turn, a higher certainty of business sus- Foundation for Quality Management
tainability. (EFQM) Model, or others ?”
Each country has its own histori-
cal development with regard to qual-
ISO 10015 : an initiative ity standards and this is especially
within the ISO 9000 family true in the training and education
In early 1992, the South sector. Still, the following two ques-
African delegation put a tions need to be put to public debate,
proposal to ISO technical namely : “ Is ISO 9001:2000 the best
committee ISO/TC 176, standard to ensure the quality of
which is responsible for the training ?” and, related to this, “ Is the
ISO 9000 family of quality current ISO 10015 a sufficiently
management standards, on developed standard to satisfy the
“ continuing education and needs and aspirations of the training
training ”, pointing out the market and its customers ?”
Each country has its own difficulties of understanding how to To provide the elements of
historical development with fulfil the requirements of ISO answers to these questions, some of
regard to quality standards and 9001:1987 clause 4.18 relating to train- the experts who participated in the
this is especially true in the
ing. At the proposal stage, a simple development of ISO 10015 have con-
training and education sectors.
majority of the national delegations tributed the following country reports
participating in the describing quality sys-
committee is required tems and standards
– in the event, South It would be misleading used in training in
Africa got 86 % in their respective coun-
favour. The new work to look at the education tryies.
item was allocated to The reports show
and training sector
Subcommittee (SC) 3, great diversity in the
Supporting technolo- as if it were a beauty current use of quality
gies, and the Working standards for training.
Group (WG) 4 subse-
contest. What matters However, a movement
quently formed began are the results can be discerned away
operating as ISO/TC from generic ISO 9000
176/SC 3/WG 4 at the standards towards sec-
September 1993 meeting of ISO/TC tor-specific ones. The sample of coun-
176 in Budapest, Hungary, with repre- try reports is of course non-exhaustive
sentatives from 20 countries. and hence not equal to an objective
After several drafts which, despite survey of all countries concerned with
many comments won increasingly the quality assurance of training. It is
favourable votes, the work culminat- up to the reader to draw conclusions
ed at the September 1999 meeting of and to the ISO community to reassess
ISO/TC 176 in San Francisco, USA, the situation. Despite that, assuming a
where an overwhelming majority continuity of the trend described
voted in favour of publishing the above, it would be damaging to the
resulting document as the Inter- ISO standards community if remedial
national Standard, ISO 10015, Quality actions were not entertained.
4) Committed and active management – Guidelines for training 4).
membership of WG 4 averaged Options for the future
around 14 participants. Support by
Mr. Alexander Gorchkov, a Customer preferences ? The author’s view is that ISO
Technical Programme Manager The crucial question is, “What urgently needs to close the “ anti-pro-
at ISO Central Secretariat was quality system could best support a liferation ” chapter (bias towards
important at crucial development
company or government organization generic standards) and quickly start
stages of the standard. AFNOR
(ISO member for France) provided in improving the efficiency and effec- with the development of sector-spe-
the Secretariat and Convenor, tiveness of training : should it be cific standards that can complement
Mr. Frédéric Séchaud. based on ISO 9000, the European and support the ISO 9000:2000
54 ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002

3. INTERNATIONAL
generic standards. The paralysing
struggle between “ anti-prolifera-
tionists ” and “ sectoralists ” forced
WG 4 representatives to invest ener-
COUNTRY REPORTS
gy in ideological battles leading to
unnecessary delays and bad feeling.
For example, representatives from
developing and transition economies
stated clearly that relegation of ISO
10015 to Technical Report (TR) or
Technical Specification (TS) status,
instead of having the full
S w i t z e r l a n d
International Standard status, does
not correspond to their countries’
needs. They need an International
Standard in order to strengthen the
quality assurance of their training and
education. A TR or TS would be too
insignificant and too weak for govern- Switzerland is a small, landlocked
mental policy-related decisions. country without significant raw materi-
These expressed wishes did not als. The current competitive advantage
deter some “ anti-proliferationists ” of its chemical, banking, insurance, BY D R . R AYMOND S ANER
from trying to kill the standard even watch and mechanical engineering
though the trends in their own coun- industries are based on human and
tries show a movement away from social capital accumulated over time
ISO 9000, despite the availability of and honed through a well organized
the revised ISO 9000:2000 series. education and training regime.
The reasons for moving away from Sensing that the current education
ISO 9000 and towards sectoral stan- and training is no longer sufficient to
dards are multiple and have been meet the challenges of globalization, The Swiss authorities
reported elsewhere (e.g. high costs, the Swiss authorities have undertak-
perceived bureaucratic approach, en a fundamental reassessment of have undertaken
non-responsiveness to sectoral needs, Swiss vocational and professional
insecurity about interpretation of education and training, leading to the
a fundamental
9001:2000 standards). principal initiatives described here. reassessment of Swiss
ISO 10015 offers partial help to All polytechnics (Fachhochschulen)
stem the haemorrhage – however, it considered key elements of the Swiss vocational and
remains insufficiently sector specific. apprenticeship system have been vis- professional education
The reason for this is simple : sector- ited by peer review teams, comprising
specific text had to be deleted to both Swiss and foreign experts, who and training
accommodate the views of the “ anti- assessed the quality of the schools.
proliferationists ”. To reverse the This fundamental assessment took
trend, it might therefore be best to one year and involved more than 300
expand ISO 10015 to a full sectoral experts. It represents the biggest peer
and requirement standard – as review of higher vocational schools
opposed to its current guideline sta- ever undertaken in Europe.
tus – at the time of its first review, Most polytechnics were found to
scheduled for 2005. use the EFQM Model, and a minority
Without such an upgrade to a ISO 9000 or total quality manage-
requirements standard, the likeli- ment (TQM). After completion of the
hood increases that more countries analysis, the polytechnics will be reor-
and customers will vote with their ganized and the Swiss Government
feet and move to alternative training will establish a new, mandatory, sec-
quality assurance standards outside tor-specific accreditation during 2002
the ISO 9000 family. (www.swiss-science.org).
ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002 55

4. INTERNATIONAL
The Swiss Association of Swiss of ISO 9001:2000 was discontinued
Universities, regrouping all such by the Swiss Government as of
establishments, decided on 15 June December 2001.
2000 to create an accreditation and Swiss training providers (inde-
quality assurance unit whose task is pendent companies or in-house train-
to prepare accreditation and quality ing departments) can apply for quali-
control of all Swiss universities. The ty certification offered by EduQua,
accreditation criteria and procedures which is a private, non-ISO 9000-
will be sector specific, and not based based certification organization
on ISO 9000 (www.shk.ch). operating nationwide since January
Swiss vocational high schools have 2001. The competent Swiss authori-
been offered non-mandatory oppor- ties have accredited EduQua to con-
tunities to obtain ISO 9000 certifica- duct this certification. It offers a
tion based on a one-off subsidy by quality certification based on criteria
the Federal Office of Vocational encompassing pedagogical require-
Training as a means of encouraging ments and the professional qualifica-
them to improve the quality of their tions of trainers corresponding to
teaching. Judging from field visits by Swiss training market considerations
the author, sustainability of ISO 9000 (www.eduqua.ch).
is not certain due to reported cost The Swiss Association for
concerns, perceived bureaucratic Standardization (SNV – www.snv.ch)
approach and resistance by teaching adopted ISO 10015 on 1 September
faculties, especially in light of the fact 2001.
that this subsidized support in favour
understanding of ISO 10015 and how
to link it to the overall business
process of an organization.
S w e d e n The Swedish Standards Institute
(www.sis.se) has established a new
technical committee for “ competence
management systems ” with the task
of developing a requirements stan-
dard to be published in the third
quarter of 2002. This new national
standard will have direct links to ISO
10015. The work on the requirements
ISO 10015 was translated and a standard is being carried out in close
bilingual (Swedish and English) doc- cooperation with the Swedish accred-
BY T OMMIE J. J OHANSSON ument was published in May 2000 itation body, Swedac (www.swedac.se),
and introduced to the market in to make sure that accreditation will
Stockholm and Gothenburg. The be available for interested certifiers.
reception was beyond expectations. Other models are being used in
During the remaining seven months the Sweden besides ISO 9000, as is
of the year, ISO 10015 reached a sales the case in other OECD countries.
figure 10 % higher than that of ISO There is the Swedish Quality Award
9001 during the same period. (SQA), managed by the Swedish
To help us bring the standard to the Institute for Quality (www.siq.se),
market’s attention, one of the major and, to an increasing extent following
training providers in Scandinavia – Sweden’s entry into the European
STF of Sweden (www.stf.se) – has Union, the European EFQM Model.
been running a succession of two-day Based on the SQA model, there is
training programmes to increase also a quality award for the national
56 ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002

5. INTERNATIONAL
educational system of Tommie J. Johansson,
local schools, man- (previous page) former Swedish
aged by the Swedish member of the ISO/TC 176/
Association of Local SC 3/WG 4, is a member
of the Swedish delegation
Authorities. to TC 176 since 1993 and his
participation has included
membership of the Chair’s
Strategic Planning Task Group.
ISO 10015 reached He is Senior Adviser with STF,
a sales figure the leading Scandinavian
provider of training and
10 % higher than education to all major lines
of business.
that of ISO 9001
during the same Tel. + 46 31 700 9399.
Fax + 46 31 700 9320.
period E-mail tommie.johansson@stf.se
Russia’s transition to a market
economy requires effective labour
markets and effective human
resource development strategies.
However, the corresponding regula-
R u s s i a n F e d e r a t i o n
tion is missing to support this transi-
tion and the personnel policy of the
majority of Russian enterprises does
not conform to the strategy of market
reforms.
In order to bridge the gap between
the old and the new, a new strategy
and complementary programme has of personnel at the work-place. An
been created, the “ Programme for a increasing number of Russian
Quality Work Force ”, which aims at a enterprises have used parts of the BY D R . N ADEJDA V OLKOVA
large-scale reform of Russia’s voca- ISO 10015 standard since 1997
tional training. This new strategy was (even before its finalization). At the
Dr. Nadejda Volkova is former
launched in the mid- same time, the Russian Federation member
90’s with the support Russian Federation of ISO/TC 176/SC 3/WG 4 and
An increasing number
of the Russian Gov- Ministry of Labour a member of GOSSTANDART,
ernment and is now of Russian enterprises and Social Develop- the Russian national standards
based on the ISO ment has develop- institute. She is Director of
9000:2000 series and have used parts of the ed an instrument the Testing and Diagnostics
Research-Training Center in
TQM and EFQM ISO 10015 standard called, “ Methods Moscow, Russia.
tools. In addition, and recommenda-
there is a growing since 1997 tions for in-house
participation of enter- personnel training E-mail testdiag@df.ru
prises in the Russian Quality Award, organizations ”, based on ISO
which is a counterpart of the 10015. The new instrument will be
European Quality Award. put into practice in 2002 by the
Parts of the ISO 10015 standard Russian national standards insti-
have been used to develop a work- tute, GOSSTANDART.
ing tool to ensure the development
ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002 57

6. INTERNATIONAL
ISO 10015 is expected to achieve provide support for work-force
the following objectives : training leading to greater job
mobility.
improve the quality of Russia’s
work force; The potential contribution of ISO
10015 is highly esteemed today by
serve as a basis for the creation of
Russian enterprises that consider it
a foundation for vocational stan-
an up-to-date tool for training and
dards ;
management development.
guide the government’s regula-
tion of vocational education and
training, and
of standard-setting in the field of
continuous education and training.
Many sector-specific standards,
G e r m a n y guidelines, and projects have been
initiated in order to assess and
improve the quality both of training
providers and of training activities.
All these sector-specific documents
and projects are independent of the
ISO 9000 family. A brief description
of some examples follows.
The Federal Institute for
Germany has attached significant Vocational Training (BIBB –
importance to education and train- www.bibb.de) has published a
BY D R . K ARL-H EINZ B REHM ing. However, in the final ballot on “ Quality Checklist of Vocational
ISO 10015, Germany cast the only Training ” in order to offer guidance
negative vote of all participating ISO to potential customers interested in
Dr. Karl-Heinz Brehm, former
German member of member delegations. purchasing training that would be
ISO/TC 176/SC 3/WG 4, is a The negative vote was cast by a appropriate to the trainees’ needs
freelance expert, consultant, narrowly composed committee of the and adequate enough to guarantee
trainer and author in the field German Institute for high quality. This
of quality in education and Standardization, DIN, institute has also
training. mostly consisting of ISO 10015 is practically developed a cata-
engineers, who sub- unknown in Germany logue of require-
E-mail karl-heinz.brehm@web.de sequently decided ments for training
that the standard and rarely mentioned providers and voca-
should not be pub- tional training serv-
even in specialist
lished as German ices. The catalogue is
standard. They were literature used by the Federal
of the opinion that Employment Service
the content of this to assess training
document at best merited the status of providers and their courses in order
an ISO Technical Report. In conse- to decide whether or not to offer
quence, ISO 10015 is practically financial support.
unknown in Germany and rarely The Federal Ministry of Education
mentioned even in specialist literature. and Research (www.bmbf.de) is at the
In contrast to this decision by a moment favouring the development
specialized committee, Germany, in and implementation of comparative
general, has seen a rapid expansion quality tests in selected fields of
58 ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002

7. INTERNATIONAL
further education. In addition, a
whole host of projects relevant to
quality assurance and development
are being financed: for example, a fea-
sibility study titled, “ Foundation
Education (Quality) Test ”.
U n i t e d K i n g d o m
Since the election of the New BY J OHN T IDBALL
Labour Government in 1997 on the
slogan, “ Education, education, edu- John Tidball is former
cation ”, there has been a huge num- United Kingdom member of
ber of initiatives designed to improve ISO/TC 176/SC 3/WG 4 and a
Siemens AG has developed, the United Kingdom’s performance member of BSI.
in achieving educational standards, He is Chief Executive of The
implemented and QUIET Associates (QUality In
compared to its world competitors. Education and Training)
published a set of So far, these initiatives have an international network
sector-specific requirements
focussed primarily on setting targets of education, training and
for attainment at age 7, 11, 16, 19 and personal development
for training in order to assess 21+ ; and the subsequent publication consultants and trainers.
of “ league tables ” comparing
and improve the company’s schools’, colleges’ and universities’ Tel. + 44 1226 700318.
E-mail tqma@supanet.com
in-house courses relative success in achieving these
targets at each relevant age level,
backed up with inspections for all
these phases e.g. for schools and col-
The Standing Conference of
leges under the auspices of OFSTED
Education Ministers of the German
(the Office for Standards in
Länder, together with the Standing
Education).
Conference of Vice-Chancellors and
One of these targets has also been
Principals, is currently implementing
to encourage a certain proportion of
procedures for the accreditation of
small and large businesses to achieve
schools and universities (www.
the “ Investors in People ” (IiP) stan-
akkreditierungsrat.de). A core ele-
dard which originated in Britain and
ment of this assessment process is the
is increasingly adopted worldwide. It
use of peer reviews to evaluate the
is awarded to organizations of all
quality level of teaching courses.
types – public and private sector, vol-
Siemens AG, one of the foremost
untary and commercial – which meet
international companies in the field
the criteria of good practice in deter-
of electrical and electronics engineer-
mining the mission of the organiza-
ing, has developed, implemented, and
tion, developing an appropriate
published a set of sector-specific
strategic plan, and identifying the
requirements for training in order to
human resource gaps in competence
assess and improve the company’s in-
between current capacity and the
house courses. The company awards
skills required to achieve organiza-
courses which meet the scheme’s
tional purpose.
requirements with a quality label
Where this competence gap can be
(www.sqt.siemens.de/qib).
met through training (as opposed to
recruitment), the standard requires
ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002 59

8. INTERNATIONAL
the organization to demonstrate that Telecom, 127 000 people. A substan-
it arranges for the training need to be tial proportion of educational institu-
met and its effectiveness evaluated. tions has achieved this standard.
The British contribution to the In addition to ISO 10015’s compe-
development of ISO 10015 since 1993 tition from IiP (though the low sales
consequently focussed on ensuring may also be a function of poor mar-
that as many elements as possible of keting by the BSI), public sector edu-
this good practice were incorporated cation organizations are also encour-
into ISO 10015 in aged to : achieve the
order to avoid prolif- Charter Mark (an
eration and duplica-
There has been a huge award won by public
tion. This is the con- number of initiatives sector organizations
text in which to meeting relevant
report that since ISO designed to improve criteria focussing
10015 was published United Kingdom’s on customer satis-
in December 1999, faction) ; benchmark
the British Standards performance in achieving themselves against
Institution (BSI) has the Business Excel-
educational standards,
sold only 100 copies lence/EFQM Model;
to 91 different organ- compared to its world and achieve ISO
izations – only four 9000 certification.
of which were educa-
competitors Finally, at least
tional. every four years,
In contrast, in June 2001, 45 071 public sector schools, colleges and
organizations in the United Kingdom universities undergo inspection
had achieved “ Commitment to IiP ”. against the standards implied by the
Of these, 49 % comprise fewer than inspection framework relative to the
50 people, 32 % 50-199, and 19 % primary, secondary, tertiary and
200 +. The smallest, a local church, has higher education phases.
two people and the largest, British
and training – about USD 25 billion
of public money and a comparable
investment from the private sector.
N e t h e r l a n d s The introduction of formal quality
systems is seen as providing a means
of improving quality without increas-
ing government intervention.
Dutch universities and polytech-
nics already have a well functioning
quality assurance system based on
the use of peer reviews for both edu-
cation and research, supported by the
The Netherlands is a densely pop- Dutch Association of Universities
ulated country with an economy (www.vsnu.nl). Even so, in light of
BY P ETER N OORDHOEK strongly dependent on trade and the coming master/bachelor struc-
services. In order to remain competi- ture, an institute for the accreditation
tive, a consensus belief holds that the of higher education establishments
level of education needs to match has been announced.
that of the best countries. In the Its criteria will be based on a mix
Netherlands, many think that not of education-specific quality criteria
enough is being invested in education and those of the EFQM Model. In
60 ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002

9. INTERNATIONAL
basic education and high schools, a tutes, including an extensive customer Dr. Peter Noordhoek is
few schools are implementing some survey. Few institutes can do without Managing Director of
form of ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 (1994 an official CEDEO recognition. Northedge and President of the
versions). Many experts see the need ISO 10015 was adopted by the government section of the
Dutch Quality Association, a
for much greater use of the EFQM national standards institute, NEN, in member of the board of the
Model, along with league tables with April 2000, but it has not been pro- Dutch Society for Oversight and
performance indicators. moted and consequently receives too Evaluation and a member of
little attention. the Dutch branch of the EFQM.
Last but not least, the Organization
of Education Professionals (www.
Northedge, Oosthaven 15-16,
nvvo.nl) regularly organizes debates 2801 PC Gouda, Netherlands.
on professional standards. The debate Tel. + 31 (0)182 68 45 45.
on whether or not there should be a Fax + 31 (0)182 68 45 42.
form of certification for professionals E-mail info@northedge.nl
has ended in a draw between those in
favour and those against.
In the Netherlands, there is a
In order to remain competitive, large, independent education inspec- In basic education
a consensus belief holds that the level torate. This inspectorate used to be
of education needs to match that involved in all aspects of publicly and high schools,
of the best countries.
funded schooling. There is now a shift a few schools are
towards a more results-based form of
Dutch training providers are very inspection. This body will also look at implementing some
active in the field of quality. For exam- the quality system the schools are form of ISO 9001 and
ple, there is the Organization of Large using. The inspectorate itself is also
Postgraduate Institutes which requires reviewing its own processes better to ISO 9004
all to be certified, based on estab- carry out its new functions. For this, it
lished quality systems. There is also is using an adaptation of the ISO
(1994 versions)
the CEDEO institute (www.cedeo.nl), 17020 criteria for the operation of
which offers quality tests for all insti- inspection bodies.
The People’s Republic of China is
the world’s most populated country
with 1 300 million inhabitants, and
covers an area of 9, 6 million sq km.
China has competitive advantages
C h i n a
like significant raw materials (coal,
oil, metal etc.), a huge work-force
and open policies for foreign invest-
ment. Realizing that the current lev-
els of training and education are not
too adequate to meet the great chal-
lenges of globalization and member-
ship of the World Trade Organization state universities, colleges, primary
(WTO), the Chinese authorities have and secondary schools etc.. However,
initiated a series of fundamental these quality standards will not be BY Y U J IANFU
actions, described here, to improve based either on ISO 9000 or ISO
their quality. 10015.
The Education Ministry (www. The China Training Centre for
moe.edu.cn) has developed a series Senior Personnel Management
of rules for assessment of China’s Officials (CTCSPMO) has developed
ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002 61

10. INTERNATIONAL
Yu Jianfu, Chinese member a quality assurance assessment sys- The China National Institute of
of ISO/TC 176/SC 3/WG 4 tem for civil service training centers. Standardization (CNIS) and the
is International Section Chief It is currently re-thinking this assess- SETC Training Center are preparing
and Associate Professor, ment system, but it is already known a series of joint measures to implement
SETC Training Center.
that it will not be ISO 10015 in the
based on ISO stan- training departments
SETC Training Center, dards. The Chinese authorities of large state enter-
N°26 Xuanwumen Xidajie, The State Econo- prises and the SETC
Beijing 100053, China.
have initiated a series
mic and Trade Com- Training Center is
Tel. + 86 10 63 19 37 87. mission of CHINA of fundamental actions designing a pilot
Fax + 86 10 63 19 38 81.
(SETC – www.setc. project to apply the
E-mail yujianfu@SOHU.com to improve the quality
gov.cn) has estab- standard in the Haier
lished an assessment of training and and Zhongyuan in-
system for about 30 dustrial groups. The
management train- education partners have held a
ing colleges and conference on the
training centers which belong to it. relevance and application of ISO
Part of these quality requirements 10015 in China’s enterprises. In addi-
are based on ISO 9000, others are tion, the SETC Training Center plans
based on existing training and man- seminars on ISO 10015, including
agement practices of these centers. training of trainers seminars aimed
The State Administration of at Chinese enterprises. Lastly,
China for Standardization (SACS – Chinese experts in quality manage-
formerly CSBTS – www.csbts.cn.net) ment and management training are
has translated ISO 10015 into Chinese editing a series of books on ISO
and approved it as a national stan- 10015.
dard in September 2001.
A train the trainers workshop
in progress, provided by the
SETC Training Center for the
Hubei (China) Power Company.
62 ISO Management Systems – July-August 2002

11. Note: This publication has been made available by CSEND.org with the agrement of the author.
The Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND) aims at
promoting equitable, sustainable and integrated development through dialogue and
institutional learning.
Diplomacy Dialogue is a branch of the Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development
(CSEND), a non-profit R&D organization based in Geneva, Switzerland since 1993.