The European Organization for Quality (EOQ) is an autonomous, non-profit making association under Belgian law, having its legal office in Brussels.EOQ is the European interdisciplinary organization striving for effective improvement in the sphere of quality management as the coordinating body and catalyst of its National Representative Organizations (NR's). EOQ's Network comprises National Representative, Associated, Affiliated members’ and partners’ organizations from 40 countries, reaching up to 70,000 members and 500,000 companies linked to its members.
The EOQ (at that time called European Organization for Quality Control - EOQC) was established in 1956 and the founding organizations came from five western European Countries: France, Italy, Western Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The EOQ spread its roots into other western European countries, before establishing links with central and eastern European countries in what was then seen as a Communist bloc. More recently EOQ has widened its activities to include the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.EOQ Historical Data - Initiated Projects
EOQ's goal is to achieve mutual recognition of qualifications within Europe hence, the registration of EOQ certified professionals. EOQ supports all common activities, with respect to the qualification and registration/certification of EOQ certified professionals under the EOQ Harmonized Scheme for the Registration of Personnel (in the field of quality, environment, health and safety, risk, corporate social responsibility and specific sectors), the most successful product of EOQ. EOQ established this scheme, called EOQ's Personnel Registration Scheme, as a part of its mission to strengthen Europe's economic system by promoting improvement in all aspects of quality - from developments in quality systems management through to the use of quality as a competitive market force, by anticipating customer needs and creating customer confidence.For this purpose, the EOQ has formed a special unit, the EOQ Personnel Registration Unit (EOQ-PRU), who acts both as a clearing body and as a body for the recognition/certification and acceptance of EOQ certified professionals and deals with:
EOQ promotes the mutual recognition and acceptance of registrations/certificates within the framework of the scheme, actually based on mutual recognition through the European cooperation for Accreditation (EA), granted by its recognized members called EOQ-PRU Agents.Competence certificates based on EOQ normative documents have an outstanding reputation and are objective proof of competence due to the worldwide accepted processes of assessment, examination, certification and re-certification used in accordance with the ISO/IEC 17024 standard's requirements.Today EOQ counts more than 70,000 EOQ competence certificates holders. EOQ certificates have been commended for openness, transparency and credibility.
EOQ competence certifications
| EOQ Profession | EOQ Code | Certificate validity (years) |
|---|---|---|
| Quality Operator | QO | 5 |
| Quality Assistant | QAS | 5 |
| Quality Professional (only for re-certification) | QP | 5 |
| Quality Management Technician | QMT | 3 |
| Quality Management Technician Junior | QMT Junior | 6 |
| Quality Management[1] Representative (start 2013) | QMR | 3 |
| Quality Systems Manager (valid until 2015) | QSM | 3 |
| Quality Manager (start 2013) | QM | 3 |
| Quality Systems Manager Junior | QSM Junior | 6 |
| QA | 3 | |
| Quality Lead Auditor (start 2013) | QLA | 3 |
| Quality Auditor Junior | QA Junior | 6 |
| Environmental Systems[3] Manager | ESM | 3 |
| Environmental Systems Manager Junior | ESM Junior | 6 |
| Environmental Auditor | ESA | 3 |
| Environmental Auditor Junior | ESA Junior | 6 |
| Occupational Health and Safety Systems Manager | OHSSM | 3 |
| Occupational Health and Safety Systems Manager Junior | OHSSM Junior | 6 |
| Occupational Health and Safety Systems Auditor | OHSSA | 3 |
| Occupational Health and Safety Systems Auditor Junior | OHSSA Junior | 6 |
| Risk Manager[4] | RM | 3 |
| TQM Assessor | TQMA | 3 |
| TQM Leader | TQML | 3 |
| CSR & Sustainability Manager | CSRM | 3 |
| CSR & Sustainability Assessor | CSRA | 3 |
| Management System Consultant | MSC | 3 |
| Management System Senior Consultant | MSSC | 3 |
| Quality Systems Manager in Healthcare | QSMH | 3 |
| Food Safety[5] System Manager | FSM | 3 |
| Food & Safety Auditor | FSA | 3 |
| Information Security Management System Manager | ISMSM | 3 |
| Information Security Management System Auditor | ISMSA | 3 |
| Laboratory Quality Assurance Manager | LQAM | 3 |
| Laboratory Assessor | LA | 3 |
| PSM | 3 | |