GFSI is seeking food safety training and education professionals to participate in a new Working Group (WG) on Auditor Training and Professional Development.
One of the biggest challenges facing the certification industry is the increasing decline in the field of qualified food safety auditors, who play a crucial role in assuring safe food food for consumers worldwide. Becoming – and remaining – a qualified auditor can be a challenge and the role is often taxing, while professionals who fit the profile typically have attractive alternatives.
Further exacerbating this shortage in the marketplace is a need to create parity of esteem with other auditing professions, such as financial auditing, in order to boost entry into the profession and create a wider talent pool, which in turn will further drive the standards of food safety auditing.
GFSI is thus launching a programme to reduce the burden on food safety auditors and support the sustainability of the community. We are opening a Working Group to develop harmonisation and benchmarking requirements for providers of food safety auditor training and continuing professional development (CPD).
The Working Group will be mandated to create a professional framework, a competency framework, a code of practice, and a document defining what is expected of a food safety professional across all aspects of their activity, including professional development.
All providers of food safety training will be invited to apply for benchmarking against the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements for Training upon its release in early 2021. Going forward, GFSI will require that audits for GFSI-recognised certification programmes be delivered exclusively by auditors trained by a GFSI-recognised provider of training and continuing professional development. This will foster mutual recognition and reduce the training burden on auditors while increasing confidence and harmonising performance.
GFSI has a leading role to play here. By moving to deliver benchmarking requirements for auditor training and ongoing CPD, GFSI plays to its technical and professional strengths, having already created a harmonised approach to food safety worldwide through its globally recognised GFSI Benchmarking Requirements.
This work is part of a food safety revolution launched by GFSI in 2020, under the umbrella term Race To the Top (RTTT). This framework redefines GFSI’s place in the food safety system with the aim of staying true to our original genesis as a benchmarking and harmonisation organisation responsible for the food safety ‘what’ and not the food safety ‘how.’ To learn more, please take a look at our RTTT stakeholder consultation outcomes and subscribe to GFSI News.
Selection Criteria & Eligibility
A maximum of 15 members will be chosen spread across retailers, manufacturers, accreditation bodies, certification bodies, service providers, academics, regulators and training organisations.
Please note that this Call for Participation is now closed. Only candidates who have been selected will be contacted. Be sure to subscribe to GFSI News to be notified of any upcoming opportunities.
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