IIMS marine surveying training receives international seal of approval

The International Institute of Marine Surveying (IIMS) has been awarded the globally recognised ISO 9001 standard for quality management of its training services.

ISO 9001 is the most widely used quality management standard with more than one million certificates issued to organisations around the world. There are seven guiding principles of ISO 9001: customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making and relationship management.

IIMS earned the standard following an external audit carried out by DNV. Specifically, it has been awarded for the organisation’s training in marine surveying. This covers the Institute’s membership services, award-winning education and professional qualification distance learning programmes, training seminars and conferences, and publications, including its collection of handy guides and the award-nominated, quarterly Report Magazine.

This achievement proves and underlines the Institute’s commitment to quality, customer satisfaction and continual improvement.

IIMS CEO Mike Schwarz said, “Over the years, IIMS has vetted, assessed and accredited various people for many reasons, so it seemed highly appropriate that as an organisation we too should put ourselves up for external scrutiny. This excellent news brings an end to two years of hard work put into meeting the standard. Of course, it is really only the start!

“Special thanks are due to my close colleague, Camella Robertson, who as well as managing her day-to-day work as Membership Secretary, took up the role of Quality Manager which meant creating the framework and documentation to prepare us for audit.

“Our Immediate Past President, Peter Broad, made ISO 9001 one of his key objectives and championed it during his term in office.”

Commenting on the ISO 9001 certification, Peter Broad said, “This is an important milestone in the history of IIMS. I am delighted that the foremost global professional body for the marine surveying profession should achieve this meaningful internationally recognised standard, certified by one of the top Marine Quality Assurance organisations. My thanks to the IIMS head office team for making this possible.”

Andy Wilson, Area Manager, DNV UK Certification Division, said, “On behalf of all of us within Business Assurance here at DNV I want to congratulate the International Institute of Marine Surveying for achieving their ISO 9001 certification. In doing so they have demonstrated their ongoing commitment to pursuing a customer centric and continuous improvement to their services. We look forward to supporting them as they continue on their certification journey with us.”