Advanced SQF Practitioner

Course Description

The Advanced SQF Practitioner course is a two-day activity-based course designed for the current SQF practitioner who is seeking further education on how to improve and maintain their company’s SQF System. The SQF Advanced Practitioner course provides the tools needed to continuously improve and advance the food safety and quality programs at the site and manage the ongoing maintenance of SQF Systems.

Prerequisite Course Requirements

To ensure an optimal learning experience and fully benefit from this course, it is recommended that participants meet the following pre-requisites prior to attending the course:

  1. Been through at least one successful (C-complies rating or higher) SQF certification/ re-certification process as the designated SQF practitioner.
  2. Successfully completed a HACCP training class meeting the definition in the SQF Code.
  3. Successfully completed the Implementing SQF Systems examination.

What does the course cover?

The activity-based course addresses the following three areas:

  1. Establishing food safety and quality objectives.
    • Develop SMART objectives.
  2. Using the internal audit program to manage, maintain and enhance the SQF system
    • Best practices on how to conduct internal audit
    • Take internal audit results and assign risk and criticalities – observations and gaps that require immediate action
  3. Utilizing the corrective action/preventive action process as a tool to identify trends and build continuous improvement
    • Best practices for developing corrective action and preventative action processes for collaboration and effective implementation.
    • Tips and tools for measuring and develop trend analysis
  4. Improving the demonstration of management’s commitment and developing and prioritizing key performance indicators.
    • Improve operational efficiencies and quality and creating KPIs
    • Take the results of the trend analysis to create an action plan and opportunities for System improvement
    • How to build a food safety program that includes an ROI.
  5. Developing and maintaining a culture of food safety and/or quality.
    • Assess the current organizational culture.
    • Identify areas of improvement in the current culture using assessment tools.
    • Develop a plan to address opportunities for improvement in the existing culture.
    • Track progress towards culture goals.

Is there a final assessment?

Yes. The Advanced SQF Practitioner examination is intended to assess the knowledge of the experienced SQF practitioner. It is strongly recommended that candidates for the examination meet the following pre-requisites:

  1. Been through at least one successful (C-complies rating or higher) SQF certification/ re-certification process as the designated SQF practitioner.
  2. Successfully completed a HACCP training class meeting the definition in the SQF Code.
  3. Successfully completed the Implementing SQF Systems examination.

Additionally, it is recommended that the examinee has successfully completed the Advanced SQF Practitioner course or has successfully completed a Corrective and Preventive Action and/or Internal Auditing course.

The exam can be accessed from the following link:
https://www.zosilearning.com/course/sqf-exam-advanced-practitioner/

The items on the Advanced Practitioner examination fall into the following 6 domains:

  • Developing SMART food safety and quality objectives to identify and prioritize areas of improvement;
  • Using available food safety and quality data to analyze and identify areas for program improvement;
  • Conducting and managing internal audits and verifying the effectiveness of the preventive actions implemented;
  • Understanding the Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) process;
  • Conducting a root cause analysis (RCA);
  • Building a continuous improvement program.

The 60-item examination is available through Alchemy Systems via their Zozi platform for $75US. The examinee is given three attempts at successfully passing the exam within 14 days of the first attempt. THIS IS SEPARATE FROM THE COURSE AS IT IS RUN THROUGH SQF DIRECTLY

The two-day Advanced SQF Practitioner course is offered exclusively through Classroom-based instruction or by virtually with a live registered SQF trainer working under Lumar Food Safety Services Ltd a licensed SQFI Training Center.

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