ISO 9001:2000 Certified

QMS Homepage

Quality Management System - Information for Students

Student Policies, Procedures & Quality Forms

Quality Manual

Quality Policy

Statement of Mission & Beliefs

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Click for more information on Holland College and ISO 9001.

Quality Intranet (Holland College internal Quality Website)

Quality Website (Holland College Quality Site - password required)

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(internal website)

ISO 9001 Certified

What is ISO 9001?

ISO 9001 is an internationally recognized standard for both quality management and quality assurance that has been adopted by 148 countries worldwide.

The ISO 9000 series of standards is primarily concerned with "quality management". In the everyday context, like "beauty", everyone may have his or her idea of what "quality" is. But, in the ISO 9000 context, the standardized definition of quality refers to all those features of a product (or service), which are required by the customer. (source ISO website: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000_iso_14000.htm)

For more information on ISO go to the bottom of this page or visit the ISO website.

Holland College - ISO 9001: The History

In the fall of 1997 the College began the task of formally developing a Quality Management System (QMS). The system was designed with ISO 9001 compliance in mind and in May of 1999 the College underwent an ISO 9001 registration audit by SGS International Certification Services Canada Inc. The College passed the audit with no major corrective actions and became one of three Community Colleges from across Canada to achieve the designation - ISO 9001:1994 Certification.

The ISO certification is good for a three-year period with annual maintenance audits in between. The College was re-registered to ISO 9001:1994 in May 2002 and then, in May of 2003, underwent another extensive audit resulting in certification to the new ISO 9001:2000 standard.

The Quality Management System

The "Scope" of the College's QMS is:

"The design and delivery of education and training to students including support services."

The College's QMS consists of a Quality Manual, Quality Procedures, Policies, Regulations and Operational Procedures and other supporting documentation. 

The College operates a documented Quality Management System designed to ensure that specified educational, training and support requirements are met. The effectiveness of the Quality Management System is monitored through a process of internal auditing, client feedback and the analysis of that feedback and management review. Feedback from staff, who are integral in the application of the various components of the QMS, alert the Quality Coordinator to potential problems and appropriate and timely revisions are made to correct the deficiency. Areas of nonconformance are addressed by raising corrective action requests and areas of potential nonconformance are addressed by initiating a preventive action request.

See the links in the left column for more specific information on the College's QMS.

More info on ISO:

ISO defines "Quality management" as: "what the organization does to ensure that its products or services satisfy the customer's quality requirements and comply with any regulations applicable to those products or services."

In the ISO system, ISO standards are developed by national delegations of experts from business, government and other relevant organizations. They are chosen by the ISO members - the national standards institutes participating in the technical committee concerned - and are required to present a national consensus position based on the views of stakeholders in their country.

"Certification" refers to the issuing of written assurance (the certificate) by an independent, external body that has audited an organization's management system and verified that it conforms to the requirements specified in the standard. "Registration" means that the auditing body then records the certification in its client register.

The ISO 9000 series of standards was written to provide guidelines to assist organizations implement and operate quality management systems. The revised series of standards (ISO 9000:2000 series) consists of three standards (ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and ISO 9004) that are internationally accepted and provide a consistent basis for understanding requirements relating to product and service quality.

SGS - the College's external ISO auditor:

SGS provides accredited certifications to ISO 9001 that are internationally recognized. Their independence as a respected third-party certification body provides both the College and the College's clientele with the confidence that the organization has the ability to meet internal and customer requirements. http://www.ca.sgs.com/iso_9001_2000