Last week's course was aimed at colour management specialists wishing to gain a good understanding of Quality Management System auditing and how it relates to ISO 12647.

It represented the first step towards offering printers ISO 12647 certification that has been accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

Current alternatives such as the Fogra scheme have been criticised in the past for lacking the backing of a national accreditation and for having the potential for a commercial bias.

PMC director Jon Stack said: "This is the first time anyone has tried to put in place a certification scheme like this for ISO 12647 that is accredited by UKAS.

"The Fogra scheme isn't accredited – that's the difference. Fogra isn't a certification body and their scheme is not accredited."

Following last week's course, the 10 trainee auditors will begin practical audit training in spring, when they will accompany ISO 9001 lead auditors on live audits until they reach competence themselves.

Stack said: "They need to have knowledge of the colour standard, which is 12647, and also the Quality Management System's standard, which is 9001, because they're going to have to be capable of auditing both."

Speaking at the last Digital Ad Lab meeting, BPIF Technical Committee chairman Paul Sherfield stressed the importance of a UKAS-backed scheme.

"UKAS accreditation is important to clients. They don't understand what other accreditations are," he said.