Standard status
- Current published edition
- ISO/IEC 17024:2026 (third edition, published March 2026)
- Assessments conducted against
- The 2026 edition. ISO/IEC 17024:2012 may still be used by bodies not yet transitioned until the transition deadline below, after which only the 2026 edition applies.
- Transition deadline
- March 31, 2029
- Scheme type
- Certification of persons
ISO/IEC 17024 is the international standard for bodies that certify the competence of individual people, rather than organizations, management systems or products. A body accredited against it is a personnel certification body, often shortened to certification body or CB. The standard sets out what such a body must do, and how it must be structured, resourced and governed, so that a certificate of personal competence is awarded on a defensible, independently assessed basis rather than on attendance at training alone. ASCB offers accreditation to ISO/IEC 17024.
What the standard requires
The requirements fall into six areas, underpinned by a management system.General requirements
These cover the certification body's legal standing, financial resources and management of impartiality. The body must be able to bear legal responsibility for its certification activities and must identify, analyze and manage risks to impartiality on an ongoing basis, commonly through an impartiality committee with balanced representation. The certification decision itself can never be outsourced, even where assessment delivery is contracted to a third party.
Structural requirements
These govern how the body is organized so that certification decisions have clear ownership and accountability, and, where the body also delivers training, so that training does not compromise the impartiality of certification decisions.
Resource requirements
These cover the competence of everyone involved in certification, including examiners, assessors, decision-makers and invigilators, together with control of the equipment, facilities and materials used in assessment. Competence must be evidenced, not assumed, and ongoing performance is monitored, including consistency checks between examiners scoring the same candidate.
Records and information requirements
These govern what is recorded across the certification lifecycle, from application through decision, surveillance, complaints and appeals, and what information is public versus confidential. A publicly accessible register lets a third party, such as an employer, confirm that a certificate is genuine and current.
Certification scheme requirements
These govern the design of the competence scheme itself: a job or task analysis defining what competence looks like for the role, assessment methods that validly measure that competence, and defensible criteria for granting, maintaining, renewing or withdrawing certification.
Certification process requirements
These govern the operational process, from application through the certification decision, made independently of the candidate's assessment, the use of certification marks, and the fair, timely and independent handling of appeals and complaints.
Management system
A management system underpins all of the above, so that conformity is maintained through document control, internal audit, management review and continual improvement, rather than depending on individual good practice alone.
Scheme and sector application
ISO/IEC 17024 is applied across a wide range of professions and trades, wherever a scheme independently verifies an individual's competence rather than simply recording attendance at training. Common applications include occupational health and safety roles such as plant and equipment operation, engineering and construction trades, information security and IT practitioner certifications, management system auditor certification, project and program management, and financial planning and advisory certification. The common thread is that the assessment method is chosen to validly measure the specific competence at stake, whether a written examination, a practical or simulated task, or a portfolio of evidence.
Is a certified person "ISO/IEC 17024 accredited"?
No, and the distinction matters. Certification is what a certification body does to a person: an independent attestation that the individual has met defined competence requirements. Accreditation is what ASCB does to the certification body: an assessment confirming the body operates in accordance with ISO/IEC 17024. A person holds a certification issued by a certification body; that body, in turn, is accredited by ASCB. Neither a person nor a certificate is itself "ISO/IEC 17024 accredited"; the body is accredited, and the person is certified.
Why seek ASCB accreditation against ISO/IEC 17024
ASCB assesses a certification body against the requirements of ISO/IEC 17024 on a periodic, risk-based basis, sampling records, personnel files and live assessment activity. For a certification body and the users of its certificates, that means independent third-party assessment against the international requirements for competence-based certification of individuals; international recognition and portability, so a certificate carries a common, independently assessed standard of rigor that a self-declared or unaccredited scheme cannot claim; a public, verifiable record for employers, regulators and procurement teams, who can check a certificate rather than take it unverified; and delivery by an established international accreditation body operating to ISO/IEC 17011 for more than 30 years; organizations certified by ASCB-accredited bodies operate in 140+ countries.
Where ISO/IEC 17024 sits among the standards
ISO/IEC 17024 is one of a family of conformity assessment standards. The most closely related are:
• ISO/IEC 17000: the conformity assessment vocabulary and principles; it defines the shared terms this standard uses.
• ISO/IEC 17021-1: management system certification bodies; certifies organizations, where ISO/IEC 17024 certifies individual people.
• ISO/IEC 17065: product, process and service certification; certifies products, a different activity.
• ISO/IEC 17011: requirements for accreditation bodies; the standard ASCB works to when it accredits a personnel certification body.
How to apply
How to apply for ISO/IEC 17024 accreditation, including the process, the fees and the application documents, is set out on Become Accredited.