Certificate in Supplier Assurance (CSA)

Course vision

To help organisations know who they are buying from, spot weak suppliers early and fix problems together before they become failures.

Who should participate?

Buyers, supplier relationship managers, quality and compliance staff, and anyone who approves new suppliers. It also suits people in small firms who sell to larger customers and want to understand the checks they will face. The FCCP or equivalent experience is recommended.

Course description

The CSA is our newest certificate. It covers the full assurance cycle: checks before onboarding, monitoring during the contract and structured reviews when something goes wrong. You work through the case of a mid-sized food distributor with 40 suppliers and a recent near miss. For the portfolio you review one supplier, real or provided by us, and write a short assurance report with recommendations. The exam then tests how you would respond to new information about that supplier.

Course outline

• Mapping suppliers by spend, risk and dependence
• Due diligence: financial health, ownership and insurance
• Labour standards, modern slavery and environmental checks
• Onboarding questionnaires that people actually answer
• Monitoring signs of distress, from late deliveries to staff turnover
• Supplier performance reviews and improvement plans
• Business continuity and second sourcing
• When and how to exit a supplier

Course experts

Led by Hannah Cartwright and Marcus Bell, head of supplier quality at a West Midlands food wholesaler, with a session on financial distress from Thomas Reilly.

Key benefits

You will be able to build an assurance process in proportion to the risk and explain it to auditors and customers. Passing lets you use the letters CSA and counts towards Certified membership.