APSCA Newsletter – March 2018

March 25, 2018

Auditor Certification Pilot – China

The 2nd Auditor Certification pilot took place in Shenzhen, China on 7 & 8 March.
We had 48 auditors representing 29 Member Firms over the two days with auditors having a range of experience from just starting in the social compliance industry to 20+ years’ experience.  They all completed the following assessments:

1. Multiple ChoiceShort Answer.
2. Case Study.
3. 3 x Simulated Interviews.

Overall, we received great feedback from the auditors as they were willing to help improve the process.  Day 1 auditors found it challenging to be without their phones all day, however, day 2 auditors were more accepting of the “no phone” rule and came with a great attitude. 
 
Some of the suggestions received:

• Reduce redundancy of some of the online multiple choice short answer questions.
• For Short Answer and Interview format, try to offer guidance on expectations.
• For online exam, group the questions that are similar types: multiple choice / select all that  Apply, short answer.
• Chinese translation should incorporate more technical terms, even including English where appropriate (for example “root cause analysis”). 
• Prefer multiple case studies to test issue identification, rather than in one large case study.       
• Auditors want to complete the exam, which require fewer questions or longer exam time. 
• Interview: allocate briefing and planning time prior to conducting mock interview.
• Provide guidance on how interviews are evaluated.
• Provide better context for the interview and expected outcomes.

Two debrief sessions were held with management of the Member Firms participating in the pilot; one in Shenzhen and one in Hong Kong, which enabled open discussions about the process and where improvements will be made.

All the feedback and exam results are now being collated and further refinement will be made in the coming months.

Thank you to all the auditors for their participation in this important milestone!

Please see our “Certification Pilot” page on our website for more photos of the event:  http://www.theapsca.org/certification-pilot.html

Examiners Invigilators:
Top Left:  Julie Shaw (APSCA), Joe He (Disney), Brian Hui (WRAP), CK Wong (DNV), Glen Si (BV),
​Eric Leung (Hallmark).
​Bottom Left:  Kara Chan (Independent), Snow Sun (Walmart), David Han (LL Bean), Kelvin Ho (Arche Advisors), Tara Holeman (Ethos Matters), Rona Starr (APSCA).

APSCA Auditor Certification Exam
On Thursday 22 March a group of APSCA stakeholders met with Third Party experts on exam preparation, HumRRo, to review the exam questions and results from the recent Auditor Certification Pilot in China .  During this meeting APSCA worked with experts who provided training and guidance on how to enhance the multiple choice/ short answer questions before breaking into 3 groups to work on improving the questions based on recommendations from HumRRo.  We continue to make progress towards our final goal to implement the exam and certifying social compliance auditors.

Sedex Conference – London
​APSCA participated in the recent Sedex Conference in London on 13 & 14 March 2018.  APSCA had a booth at the conference which gave us the opportunity to connect with many of our members who were in attendance, and to meet with others in the industry, providing an update on our progress. 

Rona Starr (APSCA PresidentCEO) and Avedis Seferian (WRAP PresidentCEO and APSCA Executive Board Chair).
(Photo Credit: Stephen D Lawrence Photography) 

 APSCA Executive Board Meeting
​The APSCA Executive Board met in London on 15 & 16 March 2018.

The agenda was extensive and focussed on progress to our strategy – a few highlights were:  debrief on the examination pilot which took place in China the week before, how the registration of auditors was progressing; we have approx. 2500 auditors in our system going through the validation process.  We discussed recommendations for ethics & integrity protocol as well as had a presentation from a recent marketing and communication review.

It was great to have our full Board present for the full 2 day meeting.

From Top Left:  Rona Starr (APSCA PresidentCEO), Avedis Seferian (APSCA Executive Chair), Greg Gardner (Arche Advisors), Petra Herbertz-Crumpler (Walmart), Kevin Franklin (ELEVATE), Rajan Kamalanathan (Bureau Veritas), Frank Dorssers (TÜV Rheinland), Christophe Liebon (Intertek), Fred Waelter (UL), Pierre-Yves Dupont (SGS). 
(Not pictured but also in attendance:  Wesley Wilson (Independent),
Antonio Astone (DNV-GL), Randy Rankin (Independent).

ELEVATE Conference – Sydney
ELEVATE Leadership Series 2018 took place in Sydney on 22 March 2018 which provided the latest progress on the rollout of the Modern Slavery Act in Australia and importantly to equip business to tackle the problem.

APSCA participated on a panel session:  Transparency, Trust and Impact – Partnership Approach to Responsible Supply Chains.  This was an opportunity to share APSCA’s Mission and progress to our strategy. ​

APSCA Support StatementOrganizations providing support via the APSCA Support Statement  (that was launched last year) continues to grow.  These organizations have provided their permission to use their name / logo which you can view on our website:

http://www.theapsca.org/support-statement.html

If you would like to offer your support and have your organization’s name/ logo placed on our website, please let us know by contacting director@theapsca.org.

Out & About
Check out our “Out & About” page for photos from the great events our Members have been part of:   http://www.theapsca.org/out–about.html

Stay Up-To-Date
Visit our website www.theapsca.org to see the work-in-progress and follow us on LinkedIn.