DQS Academy Turns One: Reflecting on a Year of Development and Growth

Over the past year, DQS Academy has been continuously finding ways to not only round out the certification process with training, but to better the training experience for attendees and instructors. One of the largest goals for DQS Academy is ensuring that each instructor and each Subject Matter Expert (SME) involved in the course creation process is not only knowledgeable about the subject, but also has years of hands-on and relevant sector experience. The instructors and SMEs that are currently a part of DQS Academy are excited to be leading courses or be a part of changing the dynamic of how training has been done previously. With an enthusiastic team of professionals working together, the courses that are developed provide content that is relevant to participants and provide the knowledge for the next steps in the certification process.

And with the addition of new instructors and SMEs, DQS Academy has been able to provide new training courses and a pipeline of new offerings being developed now. A few of the courses that have been developed within this inaugural year are:

• TISAX Executive Overview Training
• VDA 6.3 Process Audit Training
• Food Fraud & Food Defense, Awareness Training
• ESG Sustainability Assurance Practitioner

And that is just a few of the courses that have been added, with plans for more, such as TISAX Implementation and the ISO 27001 Transition course coming later this year. Not only were classes added, but modalities as well with TISAX courses being a blended course with eLearning and Live Virtual Instructor, and VDA 6.3 Process Audit Training being held in-person. Of course, to pair with the training, we provide certifications for ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, and more to get your business on the right track (visit dqsglobal.com to see all of our certification offerings).

DQS Academy also looks to participants to provide feedback on courses to aid in course development. Each post-course survey helps to modify each course, whether it’s to spend more (or less) time on a particular portion of the course or bring in new ideas and concepts as a part of the course that may help future participants. DQS Academy values feedback for each portion of the course development process that a New Course Feedback survey has been created to receive input on items such as course language options and modalities that should be considered moving forward. If you have any feedback or ideas for DQS Academy, we welcome you to complete the survey to best construct courses in the future.

Outside of course development, ease of access is another key goal of DQS Academy. One of the first projects I worked on was creating the DQS Academy FAQ page to provide general information to individuals that are interested in learning more. This addition was to help give the basic information about who to contact if someone is unable to make it to a course or how to register for the course which are common questions that may be asked once someone visits the website. Another large change to the website was making it easier to find upcoming dates for courses. Originally, all courses were listed out by date in closest upcoming to furthest. This format would lead to multiple page-scrolling before possibly find a course being offered 3 months away. Now, to make it easier for individuals, the page is now set up by course and when visiting the course page, all available public course dates are listed in chronological order. The current layout makes it easier to find the public course that individuals are interested in and see how far out dates are scheduled. Removing the hunt of courses makes the process of registration smoother and faster. Getting the training you need should not be a hinderance on moving your skills and business forward. And when it comes to private courses, it is a simple process of working with a Sales Manager by beginning with an email to sales.us@dqs.de. All* courses (*with the exception of automotive/IATF courses) listed within the course catalog are available as private courses. And if a course is not currently offered on the course catalog, DQS Academy is happy to work with you in creating a course for your needs.

With these improvements and developments over the past year and what is currently in process, DQS Academy will continue to grow in offerings and accessibility over the next year. Seeing the amount of work being put into DQS Academy by the team on a regular basis is remarkable. I’m excited to continue to work with the team in year-two as the team operates to change the definition of “training.”