IN order to ensure that all stakeholders can transition smoothly to the ISO’s Revised 17025:2017, which is meant to improve the quality infrastructure of the region, regional training is important.
This comment was made by Technical Officer of the Accreditation and Conformity Assessment, CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality, Stephen Farquharson, during the opening ceremony of the three-day Regional Training on ISO/IEC 17025, which took place at the Radisson Aquatica Resort yesterday morning.
“Today we seek to rise above the challenges brought on by the economic and more so political issues. We’re forced with a need to maximise productivity, innovation and competitiveness, to conform with established and harmonised norms to make that journey so much easier,” he said.
“So today we commence this training in the revised ISO 17025 standard. We can ensure that the health of our infrastructure is better for it.”
The technical officer noted that it was his hope over the next few days to improve the quality infrastructure and to continue the path of facilitating national and regional change.
He explained that through the ISO regional training, stakeholders would be able to understand the importance of ISO/IES 17025 as the basis for laboratory management systems; highlight the differences between ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and explain these changes; understand the application of the main clauses for testing and calibration laboratories through presentations and provide a forum for exchange of experiences; and to promote discussion among the testing and calibration laboratories in the region.
He added that the training was hosted by the Barbados National Standards Institute (BNSI), and would include a set of interactive instructional methods to convey the information to participants in an effective and practical manner.
Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, commended the staff at BNSI for pulling together such an event and noted that the workshop was one of the activities within the framework of the ISO Action Plan for Developing Countries from 2016-2020, adding that he believed they were off to a good start. (CLF)