The interest is coming from organizations that certify individuals in a variety of trades and professions, fueled in part by new government mandates requiring that certification programs in some industries hold ANSI accreditation. These organizations also value ANSI's leadership in the international community as the U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the only U.S. member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) that accredits personnel certification programs.
Another indication of interest is that ANSI's popular workshops introducing ANSI/ ISO/IEC 17024 to organizations considering applying for certification began selling out earlier this year. ANSI added additional sessions to its schedule—and these sold out as well.
"We have only a few places left in the three scheduled sessions for the rest of this year, and are considering adding yet an additional session," Mr. Hallenbeck reported. "We encourage anyone interested in participating in a workshop in 2010 or early 2011 to let us know of their interest so we can try to accommodate everyone."
ANSI intentionally limits attendance at each session to make sure that every participant receives information specific to his/her organization's areas of interest and is able to leave the workshop with an individualized organization gap analysis or blueprint.
Mr. Hallenbeck suggests that anyone interested in participating in a workshop send an e-mail to ANSI senior program manager Vijay Krishna, Ph.D., at [email protected].