One of the challenges of modern certification schemes is balancing the cost of quality assurance. Most national vocational frameworks have a one size fits all approach to quality assurance, for skills ranging from making a coffee through to disposing of explosives. Clearly the consequences of getting things wrong are quite different between the two.

When developing the International Qualifications Framework, experience showed that certification demanded a tiered model for quality assurance. Every tier must be independently quality assured as part of third-party certification, yet some industries require far greater confidence—akin to moving from “on the balance of probabilities” to a “beyond reasonable doubt” threshold.

Our Pass Series, including CorePass, is similar to unit standards and units of competency in that trainers can also be assessors. Assessment tools are moderated by providers before use, and evidence undergoes external moderation. We call this our Bronze Tier—robust in quality, but for those who need more, higher tiers are available.

Our Silver Tier is the Qual Series. For example, those in North America may recognise this from ProQual certifications such as NFPA 1006 Rope Rescue Technician. Here, theoretical exams are externally moderated by IPSQA before use, and assessors cannot have trained candidates within the previous two years, following ISO 17024 guidelines.

The Gold Tier is for the highest level of assurance, exceeding silver requirements. This tier incorporates professional requirements such as demonstrated real-world experience and requires a portfolio of evidence that is assessed by someone not domiciled in the same country as the candidate. This supports both global consistency and limits potential for local bias or interference. At this level, IPSQA offers Awards and Certificates in Public Safety, with awards for standards of 10 credits or less, and Certificates above 10 credits (typically equivalent to 100 hours of learning and experience).

Our fee structure varies across these certification levels as the quality assurance requirements become progressively more resource-intensive—but this guarantees certification you can genuinely trust when it matters most.