ISO 29993-2017 — Learning services outside formal education

This documentation addresses ISO 29993:2017, which specifies requirements for learning services provided outside formal education, including vocational training, continuing professional development, corporate and language training, coaching, and other non-formal learning offered by providers to learners and sponsoring parties. Its purpose is to establish a common benchmark for the quality of such services, enabling learners and sponsors to compare and select providers with confidence. The scope covers the entire service delivery cycle rather than the internal management system, focusing on what the learner and sponsor experience. It applies to learning service providers of any size and to the individuals or organisations that commission training, and it is intended for training managers, instructional designers, trainers, and quality personnel. Key requirements include clearly determining learning needs and expectations, defining the scope and design of learning services, specifying learning objectives and methods, ensuring the competence of trainers and staff, providing appropriate learning resources and environments, communicating transparent information to learners and sponsors before and during the service, and evaluating learning outcomes and satisfaction. The standard also emphasises accessible information about content, duration, cost, and expected results, and mechanisms for feedback and improvement. ISO 29993 complements ISO 21001, which provides a full educational management system, and can be integrated with ISO 9001; it effectively translates general quality principles into the specific context of non-formal learning. Main benefits include greater transparency and comparability, improved learner and sponsor trust, more consistent training quality, clearer expectations, and a competitive market advantage for providers. In a certification or conformity context, providers may seek third-party assessment against the standard to demonstrate adherence, and the documentation serves as objective evidence during audits, tenders, and client evaluations. Maintaining conformant documentation ensures that learning services are designed, delivered, and evaluated in a structured, learner-focused, and continually improving manner.

Included: 64 ready-to-use, fully editable documents (manual, procedures, forms, records, checklists, guidance and training material).

License: single-organization license; delivered electronically as a ZIP archive.