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CQA or CIA

Discussion in 'Professional Certifications and Degrees' started by Andrew Milroy, Jun 24, 2019.

  1. Andrew Milroy

    Andrew Milroy New Member

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    Hello,

    I'm planning on furthering my career by becoming certified and have the following question.

    Are the Certified Quality Auditor and Certified Internal Auditor designations recognized as fairly equal in terms of showing competency as an Auditor? If not, which is best?

    Thanks,

    Andrew
     
  2. yodon

    yodon Well-Known Member

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    My take: being certified means you passed the tests whereas competency can only be demonstrated through application.

    There are plenty of "certified" auditors that come up a bit short on the competency scale and there are excellent auditors that aren't certified.

    I do think that getting certified is a good building block (I am a CQA). Being certified can, at times, open doors. I've seen job postings where certification is mandatory. Not sure where you are but here in the Dallas, TX area, we have an Audit Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting monthly. Being active in relevant professional organizations is another way to continually grow.
     
  3. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    If this means attendance at an accredited (or maybe not) ISO 9001 Auditor training course, then - TBH - it carries little weight. CQA is a demonstration, through extensive testing, you meet a professional requirement satisfactorily.
     
  4. Andrew Milroy

    Andrew Milroy New Member

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    Hi Yodon and Andy,

    Thanks for the replies. The organization I'm looking at applying to requests Certified Internal Auditor (https://na.theiia.org/certification/CIA-Certification/Pages/CIA-Certification.aspx) although I am planning on obtaining a CQA from ASQ. I'm just wondering if whether the CQA is seen in the industry as perhaps the gold standard or is it the CIA or both are equal.

    From your responses, it seems like there is no one "best" certification and competency is key. However, I'm wondering when they do require one, which is the most well regarded.

    Thanks again for your comments,

    Andrew
     
  5. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Andrew, I believe that CIA is directed more towards financial auditing, than Quality Management. They do offer certification in Environmental and Safety it seems, but not quality - at least from the clicking around on the site you linked to.
     
  6. Andrew Milroy

    Andrew Milroy New Member

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    Yes, I agree. Thanks Andy.