Certification vs Accreditation: What’s the Difference?

‘Certification’ and ‘accreditation’ are vital for quality and standards. Certification ensures product or service quality, while accreditation validates organisations ensuring that certifications are reliable. Understanding this difference is crucial for professionals navigating industry standards and regulations, impacting how quality is upheld across various sectors.

This article will help you understand the difference between certification vs accreditation and how your business can take advantage of both.

Certification is equivalent to getting a stamp of approval. It shows that a person, product, or company meets the requirements of a specific standard. This approval comes from a certification body that undertakes regular assessments to verify that all the requirements of a particular standard are being met.  For example, if a company achieves ISO 9001 certification, it means its way of managing quality meets the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard. Certification is a process for verifying that a specific product, service meets the requirements of a specific standard.

Accreditation is equivalent to checking the competence and capability of the assessors. It’s a higher-level approval given to organisations that award certifications for management systems to undertake laboratory testing or carry out inspections. Accreditation assessments and awards are typically managed by government-appointed bodies such as UKAS. Accreditation bodies assess organisations that issue certificates to make sure they have the right competencies and that they undertake the assessments impartially and in line with required standards. The required standards differ depending on the type of certificates the organisation has. For instance, a laboratory that undertakes testing or calibrations is assessed and accredited against ISO/IEC 17025.

Accreditation is an important process in establishing and upholding the credibility and reliability of organisations that assess compliance with standards.

An authoritative endorsement

At its core, accreditation is about recognition; it’s an authoritative endorsement, affirming that an entity, typically a certification body or a laboratory, possesses the requisite competence, impartiality, and performance capability to carry out its specific tasks.

The depth of this scrutiny is usually deep, delving into an organisation’s procedures, staff qualifications, equipment, and quality assurance measures. It’s a rigorous assessment that ensures these entities are not just competent and can deliver reliable, accurate and impartial results.

Continuous improvement

This process is not a one-time evaluation. It involves a repeated cycle of appraisal, monitoring, and improvement, ensuring that accredited bodies not only meet but consistently uphold stringent criteria.

Building trust

Accreditation helps engender trust and confidence. It reassures consumers, businesses, and regulatory authorities that the products and services they rely on meet the international benchmarks of quality and safety. This reassurance is crucial in a globalised economy where goods and services move across borders.

Universal standards

Accreditation plays a vital role in facilitating trade and streamlining regulatory processes. Accreditation provides a common language of trust, ensuring that a certification or inspection in one country is recognised and respected in another. Ensuring that products and services conform to international standards helps reduce technical trade barriers, making it easier for businesses to enter new markets and for consumers to access a wider range of high-quality products.

Certification is a form of endorsement, the fact that a specific product, service, system, or individual satisfies commonly recognised standards. This process is more than a mere tick-box exercise, it requires rigorous evaluation and assessment.

Scrutiny and standards

Embarking on this journey, an entity undergoes a thorough examination by a recognised certification body. This scrutiny delves deep into the entity’s adherence to predefined criteria, such as standards maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Assurance

Certification assures customers and stakeholders that an organisation has appropriate controls in place to ensure that its activities, processes, products, or services comply with specific standards. This assurance provides certificate organisations with great credibility and can open doors for them to new markets and opportunities. In some industries where safety and quality are non-negotiable, such as healthcare or aviation, certification is not just beneficial; it’s imperative.