Quality infrastructure is a complex field with specialized terminology and technical details from various areas of expertise. Different institutions offer online learning courses for individuals to become familiar with quality infrastructure. In this blogpost, we will present and compare the QI introductory courses of PTB and UNIDO.

The PTB course is called “Quality Infrastructure – An Introduction” and is free of charge on the Atingi platform. The International Cooperation Department of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt created this course. Mrs Siglinde Kaiser and Mr Graham Talbot are responsible for the course content as experts in standardization and accreditation, respectively.

The course is divided into three parts: firstly, the QI Basics explains the QI structure and its definitions. Secondly, it introduces individual QI elements: Standardization, Metrology, Conformity Assessment, Accreditation, and Market Surveillance. Finally, the course outlines how a QI system can be organized effectively.

The course uses a fictitious example of Ms Wu, who runs a toy factory in a typical Southeast Asian country. The example illustrates how quality infrastructure could support SMEs to overcome typical quality and safety issues. This is a successful way of taking the perspective of QI users and highlights the need for user-oriented QI development.

Source: PTB

Participants can test their knowledge after each unit and receive a certificate upon passing a more comprehensive at the end of the training.

UNIDO’s course “Quality Infrastructure and Trade” is also offered for free on the organization’s own Training Academy platform.

Source: UNIDO

The UNIDO course follows the structure of the quality infrastructure system (see diagram above) and is divided into ten content modules. Like the PTB course, the UNIDO course describes the essential QI components (metrology, standardization, accreditation and conformity assessment). However, the QI system is placed in the general framework of international trade, and systematic links are made to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and private sustainability standards. In addition, the course deals with companies and consumers as users and stakeholders of the QI system.

Dimension	Quality Infrastructure – An Introduction	Quality Infrastructure and Trade
Publisher	PTB	UNIDO
Platform	Antingi	UNIDO Learning/ Moodle
Languages	English	English and Spanish
Modality	Self-paced	Self-paced
Duration	Approx. 3 hours	Approx. 3 hours
Costs	Free	Free
Certificate	After a final test	After a final test

While the PTB course addresses effective QI organization, the UNIDO course delves deeper into QI governance and the importance of a national quality policy. UNIDO’s course also includes cross-cutting themes such as gender main streaming.

Each of the two courses requires three to four hours. If a participant chooses to watch all videos and read all accompanying literature, the necessary time extends accordingly.

The PTB course is more user-friendly, as content is introduced as audio, whereas the UNIDO course is rather text heavy. A distinct feature of the UNIDO course is the presentation of learning objectives for each module, which is didactically helpful.

Both courses have a similar approach to the monitoring of the learning progress. The difficulty level of the multiple-choice questions is appropriate for an introductory course.

Both courses help get introduced to the topic of quality infrastructure. UNIDO provides its courses in Spanish and English languages. In addition, its Training Academy platform offers more advanced QI courses on specific subjects, such as Quality Policy, Quality Management, Good Governance in Quality Infrastructure, and Good Standardization Practices.

Kindly let us know which QI online courses you have completed and provide your ratings.