The Qualiopi quality manual: 8 processes and the table answering 32 indicators

The quality manual is the document the auditor opens first and leafs through last. Many training bodies produce a thirty-page manual describing an ideal organisation, then spend the audit hunting for the evidence behind each claim. We took the opposite route: a short manual describing the real organisation of a small body, ending with a table that maps every indicator to its evidence. Here is what it contains, section by section.

Eleven sections, not one more

• 1. Identity and scope: who the body is, which categories of action the certification covers.
• 2. Quality policy: commitments with measurable targets, not intentions.
• 3. Process map: the heart of the manual, detailed below.
• 4. Organisation and responsibilities: a matrix stating, for each activity, who performs and who validates.
• 5. Document management: where documents live, how they are versioned.
• 6. Mandatory watches: four watches, their sources, their frequency.
• 7. Complaints, incidents and non-conformities: the published circuit and the register to keep.
• 8. Management review and continuous improvement: the annual meeting and the improvement plan.
• 9. Subcontracting: what you check with outside trainers.
• 10. Correspondence table to the 32 indicators.
• 11. Validation: version, date, signatory.

The 8 processes and the evidence each produces

Section 3 splits the full life cycle of a training service into eight processes. For each, the manual states the evidence produced and the indicators fed. That evidence column is what makes the difference during the audit.

• P1, public information: dated programme sheets, results page, time-stamped screenshots. Indicators 1, 2, 3.
• P2, needs analysis and contracting: analysis sheet, quote, agreement or contract, invitation. Indicators 4, 5, 6, 12.
• P3, entry positioning: completed questionnaire, entry or redirection decision. Indicators 6 and 8.
• P4, design and updating: programme, teaching scenario, dated materials, mapping to the targeted certification. Indicators 5, 7, 10, 18, 25.
• P5, delivery and follow-up: attendance sheets, logbook, traced adaptations. Indicators 9, 10, 12, 17.
• P6, assessment and closure: assessment grids, completion certificate. Indicators 11 and 30.
• P7, human resources and watches: job descriptions, CVs and proof of competence, development plan, watch register. Indicators 21 to 27.
• P8, listening and continuous improvement: hot and cold questionnaires, complaints register, improvement plan, management review. Indicators 30, 31, 32.

The responsibility matrix, even when you work alone

Section 4 is a two-letter matrix: R for performs, V for validates, across eight activities. An independent trainer writes the same name in every cell. The manual says so explicitly: that is not a weakness, it is a reality auditors accept when it is owned and the evidence exists. What gets refused is a twenty-person manual copied by a one-person body.

Four watches, proven by their effects

Section 6 covers indicators 23 to 26. The manual is blunt: a watch is proven by a dated trace and by the effect it had, not by a newsletter subscription. The table asks, for each of the four watches, the sources chosen, the frequency and the owner: legal and regulatory, skills and occupations, teaching innovations, disability.

The correspondence table, to lay on the desk

Section 10 fits on one page. It links each group of indicators to the manual section that explains it and the pack document that holds the evidence. A few lines to set the tone:

• Indicators 1, 2, 3: section 3, process P1. Evidence: the programme sheet and the results page fed by the register.
• Indicators 9, 10, 12: section 3, process P5. Evidence: the welcome booklet and internal rules.
• Indicators 11 and 30: section 3, processes P6 and P8. Evidence: the Evaluations and Summary tabs of the traceability register.
• Indicators 23 to 26: section 6. Evidence: the Watch tab of the register, plus the disability part of the welcome booklet.
• Indicator 27: section 9. Evidence: subcontracting contracts and evaluations.
• Indicators 31 and 32: sections 7 and 8. Evidence: complaints register, improvement plan and management review report.

What the manual does not do

It replaces neither the current reading guide of the National Quality Framework nor your certifier's instructions, and it says so in its footer with its verification date and sources. Fill-in zones remain numerous on purpose: scope, targets, names of owners, watch sources. A manual with nothing to fill in would be a manual describing nobody.

The manual is the first of six documents in the €59 Qualiopi Training Body Pack. The checklist of the 32 indicators is free to download: start there, it will tell you whether you need the rest.