Training Course
Managing the Transition to the International Standard ISO 9001:2026
Course Duration: One Week (20 Training Hours)
Introduction
ISO 9001 is the most widely adopted
management system standard in the world. According to the 2024 ISO
Survey, the number of valid certificates issued against the 2015 edition
reached approximately 1,474,118, with China alone accounting for nearly 44% of
them (651,851 certificates), followed by Italy and India. This means that any
update to the standard directly affects hundreds of thousands of organizations,
including a large segment in Jordan, the Arab Gulf states, and Iraq that rely
on this certificate in government tenders and major contracts.
That update has now arrived. The
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the
new edition, ISO 9001:2026, on 16 September 2026, and the 2015 edition has
been formally withdrawn. Certified organizations are expected to be granted a
three-year transition period ending approximately in September 2029, with
accreditation bodies expected to confirm the official transition arrangements
at or shortly after publication.
Three
years may seem like a long time, but practical experience suggests
otherwise. Certification bodies must first train their personnel and obtain
accreditation for the new edition, a process that typically takes 9 to 12
months. As a result, the first certificates against the 2026 edition are not
expected before the third quarter of 2027. As the deadline approaches, pressure
on certification body capacity will increase, and organizations that start
early will be in a far stronger position.
The
changes themselves do not amount to a rebuild of the system, but they touch
the very core of how it is managed. Promoting a quality culture and ethical
behavior has been added as a new item within leadership responsibilities under
Clause 5.1; awareness requirements now include employees' understanding of
quality culture and ethical behavior under Clause 7.3; the determination of
risks has been separated from that of opportunities under Clause 6.1 through
new sub-clauses; the 2024 climate change amendments have been integrated into
Clauses 4.1 and 4.2; and the requirement for planning of changes has been
strengthened under Clause 6.3.
The real problem in our region is not
obtaining the certificate, but its effectiveness. A study
published in 2023 on the effectiveness of ISO 9001:2015 implementation in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, covering the public and private sectors as well as
non-profit organizations, rejected 10 out of 12 hypotheses, indicating that the
standard is not being implemented effectively. The new edition places this gap
under particular scrutiny, because the requirements for quality culture,
ethical behavior, and leadership commitment cannot be met with a document
prepared a week before the audit; they require living evidence of day-to-day
practice. This course has been designed to enable quality teams to manage this
transition in a genuine and structured way, rather than as a superficial update
of documents.
Why the
ISO 9001:2026 Transition Management Course at The Only Solution for Training
and Consulting?
In a transitional phase such as this, it is
not enough for participants to know what has changed in the text of the
standard. What organizations truly need is a team that returns from the course
able to update its system and prepare for the transition audit without
confusion. The course has been designed on this basis:
1. Participants leave with
working documents, not notes: Each
day of the course concludes with a practical deliverable built by the
participants themselves: a gap analysis between the two editions, an evidence
matrix for leadership commitment and quality culture, separate registers for
risks and opportunities, an updated internal audit checklist, and a 90-day
transition plan. These are drafts that can be customized and presented to
management immediately upon return, saving weeks of preparatory work.
2. Content built on the
realities of the region, not translated examples: The course addresses the situations our
organizations actually face: paper-based quality systems with no operational
impact, senior management delegating the quality function entirely to a single
department, and the difficulty of demonstrating a "quality culture"
to auditors in hierarchical work environments. The course also covers how to
address the climate change requirement in the context of organizations that
have never considered it as a factor affecting their quality system.
3. A design directly linked to
the transition timeline: The course
is not a general explanation of ISO 9001; it is built around a specific
question: How can an organization transition its certificate to the 2026
edition at the most suitable time, without waiting until the final months when
certification bodies become overloaded? The content therefore focuses on the
actual differences between the two editions and on linking the transition to
upcoming surveillance or recertification audits, rather than re-explaining what
certified organizations already know.
4. Specialized trainers and
training material updated to the new edition: The course is delivered by trainers
specialized in quality management systems and auditing, who combine a precise
understanding of the standard's requirements with practical experience in
implementing them within organizations, enabling them to answer participants'
practical questions, not only theoretical ones. The training material has been
prepared entirely in accordance with the published text of ISO 9001:2026, not
based on earlier drafts or the 2015 edition with superficial additions. It
reflects the latest requirements relating to the role of leadership, quality culture,
the separation of risks and opportunities, and change management, as well as
the transition arrangements announced by accreditation bodies, ensuring that
what participants learn is exactly what they will be asked about during the
audit.
Course Objectives
1. Enable participants to analyze the gap
between an existing quality management system based on ISO 9001:2015 and the
requirements of the 2026 edition, and to determine the actual scope of work
required for the transition.
2. Equip participants with the skills to
translate the new requirements, particularly quality culture, ethical behavior,
and leadership commitment, into practices and objective evidence that can be
audited.
3. Prepare participants to lead internal audits
in accordance with the new edition, and to develop a realistic organizational
transition plan within the transition period.
Main Training Modules
1st Day: The General Framework for the
Transition from 2015 to 2026
•
What has remained unchanged and what has changed: the harmonized
structure, the process approach, and the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
•
The context of the organization in the new edition: climate change as an
external factor, and alignment with the organization's strategic direction.
•
The new Annex A and its guidance role in interpreting the requirements.
•
Practical exercise: A gap analysis of an existing system based on the
2015 edition, and prioritization of the identified gaps.
2nd Day: Leadership, Quality Culture, and
Ethical Behavior
•
Top management's responsibility for promoting and demonstrating quality
culture and ethical behavior.
•
The new awareness requirements, and the environment for the operation of
processes.
•
How does an auditor assess "culture"? The difference between
slogans and objective evidence.
•
Practical workshop: Building an evidence matrix for leadership
commitment and an awareness plan for all job levels.
3rd Day: Risks, Opportunities, and Planning of
Changes
•
Separating the determination of risks from that of opportunities, and
planning actions for each.
•
Planning and managing changes to the quality management system in a
controlled manner.
•
Integrating climate change considerations into risk assessment where
relevant.
•
Practical workshop: Preparing separate risk and opportunity registers
for a real-life case.
4th Day: Updating Documentation and Internal
Audit
•
Updating the quality manual, procedures, and forms in line with the new
edition without unnecessary rebuilding.
•
Continual improvement following the consolidation of its clauses in the
new edition.
•
Planning and conducting an internal audit covering the newly introduced
clauses.
•
Practical simulation (role-play): An internal audit of leadership and
quality culture requirements, and writing nonconformities.
5th Day: Management Review, the Transition
Plan, and Preparing for the Transition Audit
•
The updated management review inputs and their link to transition
decisions.
•
Options for timing the transition audit: with a surveillance audit, with
recertification, or as a standalone visit.
•
Communicating with the certification body and preparing for the
auditor's questions.
•
Practical exercise: Preparing a 90-day organizational transition plan,
presented by each participant or team.
Course Outcomes
•
A precise, practical understanding of the ISO 9001:2026 requirements and
a clear distinction between them and the requirements of the 2015 edition.
•
A gap analysis ready to be customized and applied to the organization's
system.
•
An evidence matrix for leadership commitment and quality culture, and an
actionable awareness plan.
•
Separate risk and opportunity registers in line with the new structure
of the standard.
•
An updated internal audit checklist covering the newly introduced clauses.
•
An organizational transition plan with a clear timeline within the
transition period.
Certificates
Each participant who fulfills the attendance
and participation requirements of the course will receive two certificates:
1.
A certificate of attendance issued by The Only Solution for Training and
Consulting
2.
A certificate issued by Cambridge Training College Britain
The following is a necessary clarification
regarding the nature of these two certificates and the limits of relying on
them.
The Difference between a Course Attendance Certificate and Management
System Certification
The two certificates mentioned above are
certificates of attendance and completion of a training program intended for
individuals, to demonstrate their understanding of and ability to apply the
transition requirements. They are not a certification of the organization's
quality management system against ISO 9001:2026, nor are they considered a
certified lead auditor certificate.
Certification of the management system itself
is granted only to an organization, not to an individual, and is issued only by
an Accredited Certification Body following an actual audit of the
organization's system. Our course participants form the foundation for
implementing the system within their organizations, enabling those
organizations to apply for certification or transition it to the new edition.
The Only Solution for Training and Consulting
is a training and consulting organization. It is not a certification or
accreditation body for management systems, and it neither holds nor claims any
accreditation status from any national or international accreditation body.
Furthermore, any certificate issued by the partner entity mentioned above is
solely the responsibility of that entity with respect to how it describes
itself and the degree of its official recognition. The Institute neither
confirms nor denies the nature of that entity's accreditation or its
affiliation with any other academic institution bearing a similar name, and it
bears no responsibility for the participant's or their organization's use of
that certificate for any official purpose without prior verification of its
degree of recognition by the relevant authority.
Requirements for an Organization's Transition to ISO 9001:2026
Certification from an Officially Accredited Body
For organizations certified against the 2015
edition, or those wishing to obtain certification for the first time, the
internationally recognized path goes through a certification body accredited by
an accreditation body that is a signatory to mutual recognition arrangements,
and generally includes:
•
Updating the quality management system and actually implementing the new
requirements within the organization for a sufficient period before the audit,
not merely amending documents.
•
Ensuring that the selected certification body has actually obtained
accreditation to issue certificates against the 2026 edition before scheduling
the audit.
•
Passing the transition audit, which is usually conducted in conjunction
with a surveillance or recertification audit.
•
Closing any nonconformities identified by the audit team before the
updated certificate is issued.
•
Completing the transition before the end of the transition period,
expected to extend until approximately September 2029, as officially confirmed
by accreditation bodies; otherwise, the 2015 edition certificate will lose its
validity.
The official text of the standard and
information on the new edition are available on the official website of the
International Organization for Standardization.
To verify the validity of any certificate
issued by a genuinely accredited certification body, the official global
database is available. It should be noted that the International Accreditation
Forum (IAF) merged, as of early 2026, into a broader entity named Global
Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, with the aforementioned database
continuing to perform its verification function.
The Only Solution for Training and Consulting
does not provide certification or accreditation services for management
systems. Its role is limited to building the knowledge and practical
capabilities of individuals and work teams in preparation for any certification
path the organization may later choose with an accredited certification body of
its choice.