TS EN ISO/IEC 17024

TS EN ISO/IEC 17024 sets out the general requirements for bodies that operate certification of persons and provides the framework for developing and maintaining certification schemes for people. It addresses the organizational system behind person certification: how a certification body should structure the process used to evaluate and confirm a person’s competence in a defined field or role.

What person certification covers

Person certification is the independent confirmation that an individual meets specified requirements for a job, task, or area of expertise. In practice, this goes beyond an exam result and includes the full certification lifecycle: application, assessment, decision-making, surveillance, renewal, and appeals. In the standard’s terminology, “certification body” and “certification scheme” are used as shortened terms for the full expressions, emphasizing that the document is about the complete system, not only a single testing step.

Scheme design and organisational credibility

The standard’s central concern is that a certification scheme should be clear, consistent, and sustainable. In general technical context, person certification systems are usually built on competence criteria, assessment methods, independent decision-making, impartiality, and confidentiality. Annex A contains principles for certification of persons, adding a principles-based layer to the technical framework. As a result, this document serves as a common reference for organizations that need to run person certification activities in a credible and comparable way.