Course Approval


IIRSM Course Approval brings the value of IIRSM's brand and standards together with your expertise to form an attractive and competitive partnership for the delivery of quality training.
Getting your courses approved provides the following benefits:
- Independent recognition, providing trust and credibility
- Aligns your courses to an internationally recognised brand and competency framework.
- Helps to raise employee competence and confidence in their job role
- Trainer competence is verified by IIRSM
- Your company on the IIRSM website.
We have recently made changes to the process and these include:
- Streamlined and online applications with quicker assessment turnarounds
- Alignment of approved courses to IIRSM Leadership & Competency Framework
- Lower initial spend and time commitment making approvals more accessible
- Renewals and additions have a ‘light touch’ process and lower fees.
We will consider approving courses from all risk-related disciplines and the process will provide confirmation that your course(s) meet the quality standards and expectations of IIRSM.
More details can be found in the IIRSM Course Approval Guidance Document below. Please read the guidance and the FAQs section to find out how to apply for course approval as a new client, how to renew your exisitng portfolio of courses or how to add new courses to your already approved portfolio.
Your application type will depend on:
- If your organisation is new to IIRSM Course Approval, making a first-time application.
- If your organisation wishes to add a brand-new, revised or new version of an existing course to an already approved portfolio.
- If your organisation wishes to renew their course approval agreement.
For all courses IIRSM approves you must ensure that:
- Trainers remain IIRSM members, at least at Associate level, for the period of your approval.
- Your organisation complies with any interim actions or additional course reviews IIRSM requests.
- Delegates are invited to provide feedback at the end of their course, and this must be retained by your organisation for a minimum of 12 months following each delivery (we reserve the right to request samples of completed forms).
- Courses align to the IIRSM Risk Management and Leadership Competency Framework. (See here for more details.)
- Your organisation promotes the benefits of IIRSM membership to delegates attending all approved courses.
For details and links to the application Survey Monkey Forms please see below.
Those organisations who have never applied before are able to submit up to 5 courses for approval. Any agreement will be for 18 months in the first instance. You will need to complete a thorough and detailed submission through the following Survey Monkey form which can be found here.
If you already have some courses approved with IIRSM, you can add new courses, revise or add a new version of an existing course to your portfolio provided it falls within range of the number of courses in your initial application, at no additional cost.
For example if you have applied and paid for 1-5 courses to be approved but have only submitted 3, you are able to submit another 2 as per your existing agreement. We will endeavour to complete this process within 4 weeks and approval will be for the remaining duration of the original agreement. If you already have the maximum number of courses approved within the original agreement and you wish to add more, you can add up to 15 new courses at an additional fee.
You will need to complete a submission through the following Survey Monkey form which can be found here.
At the end of your current agreement period, you have the option to renew with a 10% discount. To do so you will need to inform us 2 months before the end date of the existing approval agreement. Minor changes to existing courses and changes in trainers (as long as they are still IIRSM members) are permitted provided you can ensure the overall quality and substance of the courses remains intact.
Once you have confirmed you wish to renew, we will issue an invoice which will need to be paid before we carry out a ‘light touch’ check on the courses, which we aim to complete within 4 weeks.
If there are any major changes to course content, then the course will be deemed as being ‘new’ and will go through the process detailed above.
Any renewal will be for 18 months duration.
You will need to complete a submission through the following Survey Monkey form which can be found here
“We’re delighted to achieve further approval for many of our iHASCO eLearning courses from IIRSM. We value their independent and professional assessment of the content of our courses and it gives us great satisfaction to be able to promote our courses with their seal of approval.” Alex Wilkins, Head of Business Development, iHASCO
"That our courses are approved by the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management helps us to elevate our training proposition and provide real value to our customers and their employees. Customers of Cardinus Risk Management appreciate the accreditation as it assures the quality and standard of training, and establishes the commitment to training excellence that Cardinus provides. We’ve worked with the IIRSM for many years now and the approval process for our courses helps ensure that the content and format are of a high quality, which ultimately helps to improve safety outcomes for our customers. " Stephen Smith, Cardinus
''Our stress and stress risk courses are approved by IIRSM and demonstrate to customers added value to their organisations that the courses have met the IIRSM high quality standards. The courses are up-to-date research based and provide delegates with best practice and knowledge from real life examples. Current delegates wish to “Develop and implement a robust stress risk management process” along with training all managers. There is the benefit of receiving a IIRSM Certificate when the course is completed which is a huge added bonus to all delegates – this demonstrates the value of IIRSM approval." Jessica Smyrl, YSM Solutions
"The courses approved by IIRSM helps to maintain the International standards in Health and Safety through our valued customers and clients which inturn reflects the IIRSM standard and values. We are delighted to say our valued students earned a great dignity in the work field based on the standards they learn through IIRSM. We are focusing on students who are looking for health and safety related jobs abroad. 100's of students passed from our institution for the last 8 years, from that many students are placed in different Organizations around the globe." Mohanlal T C , CEO, Acentria Safety Solutions (India) Pvt Ltd
"We have used IIRSM as a main awarding body for 3 years. The initial set up was extremely easy and we were guided through the process in a professional manner. This ease of use has continued throughout the 3 year period.
The acknowledgement from both the client's and the learner's perspective of the quality of the IIRSM marque has been reassuring. We are proud to use IIRSM alongside other awarding bodies.
I fully recommend IIRSM to any potential training organisation" Paul Boyes, Managing Director, Intellelearn
"In this competitive market, for a training provider to be distinct, memberships and accredited courses are crucial. Being approved by IIRSM, recognizes our institution and reassures our clients that they are receiving the best training out there." Jennifer De Jesus, Coordination Manager HSE, DISS
"With the support of IIRSM approval e-learning on the iProtectu software we have gained ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001. The training is easy to understand and has depth of topics. The IIRSM training approval gave us further reassurance of the quality.‘’ Richard Smith, Director, Facilities Management Southern
"iProtectU have developed IIRSM approved training which is available to all users. The training is effective, engaging and supports positive change supporting organisation in raising awareness in subjects such as COVID-19, manual handling, home working, DSE and fire awareness. IIRSM have been instrumental in ensuring a high standard of training is developed to meet learning outcomes" Wayne Beck, Managing Director, iProtectU
"The IIRSM approved training modules included in iProtectu’s software package was one of the main reasons why we chose this company. To be able to use recognised training has given the company a sense of reassurance and confidence that iProtectu's software was the right choice for our company.” Artisan
If you are new to IIRSM Course Approval the maximum number is 5.
IIRSM will consider most risk-related courses in any format, be that face-to-face, online, hybrid or e-learning. However, you must own the copyright to, or have the legal right to use, the content contained within the courses put forward for approval. To be eligible for approval, your organisation, trainers and courses must comply with our assessment criteria.
We will let you know if we are not able to approve particularly niche or complex courses or those which provide delegates with the legal authorisation or certification required to be able to complete a specific task or which leads to a formal qualification.
Existing agreements will remain in place until their agreed end dates. For new applications or renewals the approval period will be for 18 months.
Please submit any application by the 10th day of the month. Applications received after this date will be dealt with in the following month.
Yes, the fee payable is dependent upon the number of courses submitted. Particularly niche or complex courses may be charged at a higher rate than published. Please refer to the guidance document for further details. For those organisations applying from the UK, VAT is charged. An invoice is raised for the fee once the application is received.
Any existing instalment plans will remain in place. New applications or renewals will not have the ability to pay by instalments.
No, our global reach means that many organisations submit applications in their own language. Please contact us in advance of applying if this is the case. Please note that such courses, if needing translation services for us to assess, may incur additional costs.
We will no longer be providing a delegate certificate service.
We will however, provide a logo which you can add to your own delegate certificates.
On the application form you will be asked to provide us with a link and login to your online platform so we can assess your course(s).
We ask that any trainer for face-to-face courses are members of IIRSM at Associate level or above. CVs outlining the skills, subject expertise and experience of trainers will be required at the time of applying.
We ask that any person developing online training is suitably qualified to do so. There is no requirement for them to be members of IIRSM. CVs outlining the skills, subject expertise and experience of developers will be required at the time of applying.