Is the BSB50920 Diploma of Quality Auditing right for you?

If you're looking to build a career in auditing, sooner or later you'll come across the BSB50920 Diploma of Quality Auditing.

It's a nationally recognised qualification covering a broad range of auditing skills, and can be a valuable credential to have on your CV. But it's also a significant commitment.

The Diploma of Quality Auditing is a good fit if you want a broad, nationally recognised Australian qualification and have the opportunity to demonstrate your auditing competence.

A lead auditor course is generally a better fit if you want to develop audit skills against a particular ISO standard quickly, particularly if you're working towards third-party auditing or internationally recognised auditor certification.

For some auditors, or people in systems and assurance roles, the answer is eventually both.

What is the BSB50920 Diploma of Quality Auditing?

The Diploma of Quality Auditing (BSB50920) is a nationally recognised qualification within Australia's Vocational Education and Training (VET) system.

It is designed for people who undertake, lead or manage audits and want to develop broader capability across the auditing process.

Unlike a short course focused on auditing a particular ISO standard, the Diploma develops skills that can be applied across different management systems, industries and audit environments.

Because it is a VET qualification, assessment is based on demonstrating competence.

In other words, knowing auditing theory isn't enough. You need to show that you can apply it.

That can involve providing evidence portfolios, as well as completing assessment activities that demonstrate your knowledge and practical auditing skills.

It's a beneficial process for anyone completely new to auditing, as well as for someone with audit experience already under their belt as a way to formally recognise competencies that are part of their regular role.

What does the Diploma of Quality Auditing cover?

The BSB50920 Diploma of Quality Auditing develops capability across the audit lifecycle, as well as continual improvement and compliance obligations.

This includes skills such as:

• Initiating and preparing for audits: establishing the scope, objectives and criteria, determining what needs to be examined and preparing an effective audit plan.
• Leading audit activities: coordinating audit activities, working with other auditors and managing communication throughout the audit.
• Conducting audits: gathering and verifying objective evidence through interviews, observations and document review.
• Evaluating evidence: looking beyond the first answer, following audit trails and determining whether the available evidence supports the audit criteria.
• Reporting findings: turning evidence into clear, useful findings and communicating the outcomes of an audit effectively.
• Supporting improvement: following up findings and helping ensure identified issues lead to meaningful action.

The result is a broad qualification that develops more than knowledge of a particular standard. It builds capability in how quality is achieved from understanding standards and effective auditing techniques, through to continual improvement processes and compliance obligations and frameworks.

Diploma vs lead auditor course: what's the difference?

A Diploma of Quality Auditing and a lead auditor course both develop auditing capability, but they're designed to achieve different things.

BSB50920 Diploma of Quality Auditing

The Diploma is a broad Australian qualification.

It makes sense if you want a formal qualification that demonstrates auditing capability across a range of situations, particularly if you're building a longer-term career in quality, compliance, assurance or management systems.

It is also valuable where employers, government organisations or procurement processes place importance on nationally recognised qualifications.

The trade-off is time. Completing a Diploma requires you to work through and demonstrate competency across multiple units, usually delivered across several courses. It is a bigger commitment than attending a short course.

Lead auditor training

A lead auditor course is much more targeted.

An Exemplar Global-certified lead auditor course typically develops auditing skills in the context of a particular management system standard, such as:

• ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems
• ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems
• ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems

This makes lead auditor training particularly useful if you require an understanding of a particular management system, or an Integrated Management System of all three.

Lead auditor training can also form part of the pathway towards internationally-recognised personal certification.

If that's your goal, explore our lead auditor courses.

Which qualification do employers look for?

It depends on the job.

For many Australian roles in quality, compliance, governance and management systems, a nationally recognised Diploma can be a strong addition to your qualifications.

It demonstrates that your capability has been assessed against nationally recognised competency standards, rather than simply showing that you've attended a training course.

For professional third-party auditing, however, employers and certification bodies may be looking for something different.

They will typically want evidence of competence relevant to the management system standard being audited, along with appropriate industry experience, audit experience and recognised auditor training.

This is where an Exemplar Global-certified training pathway can become particularly relevant.

Completing recognised auditor training can contribute towards meeting the requirements of a certification body or relevant employer.

Which auditing pathway is right for you?

A useful way to decide is to start with the work you want to be doing, rather than the qualification you think you're supposed to have.

Consider the Diploma of Quality Auditing if you:

• Want a nationally recognised Australian qualification
• Work in quality, compliance, assurance or management systems
• Regularly conduct or support audits as part of your role
• Want broader auditing capability that isn't tied to a single ISO standard
• Can add value to your role by understanding and improving your systems
• Want a substantial qualification to support your longer-term career development.

Consider a lead auditor course if you:

• Want to audit a particular ISO management system standard
• Need practical auditing skills sooner rather than later
• Want to strengthen your internal or supplier auditing capability
• Are working towards third-party or certification body auditing
• Want training that can contribute towards an internationally-recognised auditor certification pathway

There's no single qualification that every auditor needs. If both descriptions sound relevant, completing both over the course of your career can make sense.

Someone responsible for an internal audit program within an Australian organisation may have very different development needs from someone who wants to become a third-party ISO 9001 auditor.

Whatever pathway you choose, the fundamentals of good auditing remain the same: asking useful questions, following evidence, understanding what's really happening and producing findings that help organisations improve.

If the Diploma sounds like the right fit, explore the BSB50920 Diploma of Quality Auditing through our RTO, Southpac Aerospace.

Or, if you're looking for a faster, standard-specific pathway, compare our lead auditor courses and ISO standards training.

Still not sure? Talk to our team and we can help you work out which auditing pathway best fits your experience and goals.