APSCA Newsletter August 2021

31/08/2021 - No Comments

 

 

APSCA Newsletter August 2021

The last two years has posed many challenges impacting us all. However APSCA and our Members have managed to continue striving further towards achieving APSCAs Mission and are excited to share news and take a moment to celebrate a Milestone in our progress during these difficult times.
 
We have officially reached 1000 CSCAs, an incredible milestone made possible by our Member’s determination and commitment. Congratulations to each of you!
 
APSCA also announces that our wonderful Member Services Manager is leaving us today. We celebrate and thank Kelly-Jo for her outstanding accomplishments throughout her time at APSCA.  Her contributions, and leadership within the APSCA team will be sorely missed.
 
We announce a partnership between SLCP and APSCA, provide key dates for upcoming exams, and share information regarding the new languages now available.

Further highlights are provided below.
 

 

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As at 30 August 2021, that’s how many of our APSCA Member Auditors have obtained the status of Certified Social Compliance Auditors (CSCA).

   

The CSCA status – and the achievement it stands for – is part of APSCA’s mission to enhance the credibility, consistency and professionalism of Member Firms and CSCAs to be the trusted professionals in social compliance auditing.

This milestone is one we can all be proud of – accomplished Members taking the initiative to further their careers and enhance the profession. On behalf of everyone at APSCA, congratulations to our 1000 CSCAs!

 

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It is with deep regret that APSCA announces the resignation of our much-valued Member Services Manager Kelly- Jo Potts. Kelly-Jo has been with the APSCA team for nearly three years, and her outstanding contribution to the rapid growth of our organisation has not gone unnoticed. Kelly-Jo has been the driving force behind revamping our overall communication which included our Member Happenings, Website, Resource Library, introduction of our YouTube channel, and social media.  Behind the scenes, she has been at the forefront of renovating our data systems and ensuring our team has the tools and technology to work efficiently and effectively for our Members in addition to the execution of the enhanced Member Firm application process, to name a few.
 
Kelly-Jo’s hard work, empathy and professionalism will be greatly missed, as well as her smiling face and can-do attitude. Thank you, Kelly-Jo, we wish you nothing but the best for your next adventure!

We are looking forward to announcing our new Member Services Manager in the coming weeks.
They will have some big shoes to fill!  In the meantime, if you have any questions or would ordinarily emails Kelly-Jo, please email director@theapsca.org for support.

 

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Webinars, Guidance Documents and Auditor Handbook for Part I Exam
You can now view as an element of your Part I exam preparation, Webinars & FAQ’s, Guidance Document and Auditor Handbook in the following languages:

The Due Date for sitting Part I of the CSCA exam in 6 languages, is 28 February 2022.

 Reminder:  APSCA’s Auditor Handbook is not publicly available or posted on the website. Member Auditors are advised to consult with their Member Firm to obtain a copy of the latest version.

 IMPORTANT:  Auditors are advised only to sit exams in a language they are ‘advanced’ in. If the exam is not available in your ‘advanced’ language we suggest that Member Auditors postpone sitting exams until available in a language, they are advanced or comfortable testing in.

 

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Part II Exam in 6 new languages and Guidance Documents 
The 6 new languages of Bangla, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, Vietnamese and Thai are available for booking via ProctorU. If you already have a Part II booked and you would like to sit in one of these languages, please notify the Exam Team (exam@theapsca.org) who can adjust your current booking.

You can now find the Part II Exam Guides in the APSCA Resource Library for Bangla, Portuguese, Italian and Turkish (with Thai and Vietnamese coming soon).  Webinars for these languages are coming soon.

Part II exam deadline for these 6 languages is October 2022 or 3 months after being notified of passing Part I, whichever is the latest.

 

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August sees us welcome 2 new Members to APSCA’s Stakeholder Board
Genevieve Taft-Vazquez and Linda Kromjong.

 

  • Genevieve Taft-Vazquez is a Global Director in the Human Rights Dept. at The Coca-Cola Company. Genevieve’s role is focused on providing strategy, governance and policy oversight and support to the global team and global operations. She has spent much of her career working in the area of corporate sustainability, responsible sourcing and the intersection between business and human rights from a range of perspectives

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  • Linda Kromjong is Global Labor & Human Rights Director at Samsung Electronics. In this role she focusses on strengthening the company’s relationships with key international policymakers and opinion formers and supporting Human Resources and other relevant business departments in driving corporate and supply chain improvements.

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Read more about Genevieve Taft-Vazquez and Linda Kromjong here

 

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Expression of Interest – Continuous Professional Development Trainings / Courses:

APSCA strives to support our Member Auditors and enhance auditor competencies through APSCA’S Continuous Professional Development (CPD) policy. We welcome Member Firms, partners, and affiliates to participate in this initiative by submitting an expression of interest to have their social compliance auditing-related training courses  recognized as part of APSCA’s CPD program. Recognized courses will be given a number of CPD hours which Member Auditors can note on their APSCA profile as meeting the annual requirement. Recognized courses can range from online courses to webinars, conferences, and workshops, etc. 

 

You can submit your training or course materials for consideration by completing our expression of interest form here.

Any questions, please contact Director@theapsca.org
 

 

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NOW AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING
Guidance 1: Audit Effectiveness and Auditor Safety


                                               

APSCA’s guidance on use of subcontractors or partner organizations.
Visit APSCA’s Resource Library page for a copy of the PPT presentation including notes.

www.theAPSCA.org
 

 

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SLCP and APSCA Partnership Announcement

APSCA and Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP) are pleased to announce our formal collaboration. Our collaboration furthers our data integrity goals as both organizations have a shared vision to enhance the credibility of social compliance audit organizations and reliability of social audit data.

SLCP and APSCA have been a consistent partner over the last 5 years and have been aligning our criteria to monitor and improve the performance of SLCP Verifiers and Verifier Bodies. Under this collaboration agreement, both organizations have now mutually agreed to share alerts and integrity investigations proactively and systematically within the framework of our consent given by Members. APSCA and SLCP will also continue to seek further avenues for engagement that will support our joint vision.
 

 

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Thank you, Sophia Rubbo!

APSCA would like to farewell and wish all the best to our summer intern Sophia Rubbo. Sophia has been working closely with our Certification Coordinator on driving our Continuous Professional Development (CPD) efforts (visit APSCA’s Resource Library) and helping the team on a few other projects over the last couple of months. She’s now off to start her Sophomore year of college at George Washington University!

We thank her for the work she completed over the last few months and hope to see her back for a few more projects in the near future.  In the meantime, we wish her all the best in her studies and future career. 

 

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We are pleased to congratulate 3 Member Firms on acheving full APSCA Membership Status DNV, IBL Africa (PTY) Ltd, and Key Traceability LTD. We want to thank their commitment to the realization of APSCA’s mission “To enhance the Professionalism and Credibility of individuals and organizations performing independent social compliance audits”.


For information on Firm Membership definitions and how your Firm can commence the application process, please visit our website.  

Definition / reference of the terms noted above are available on our APSCA Member Auditors page.
 

 

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 REMINDERS – EXAMS 


 

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For all CSCA Exams (Parts I – III) Auditors must consult with their Member Firm to confirm eligibility to sit each exam. Please ensure you follow the guidance in the Auditor Handbook and notify APSCA prior to enrolling for any exam.

Should you have any questions or need clarification on the exam eligibility process, please contact us at Director@theapsca.org  

CSCA Exams & Languages:

  • Part I & II are available in ten languages (English, Simplified & Traditional Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Bangla, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese).
  • Part III is available in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Please see our website, Resource Library to assist with your preparation and for more information.

 

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Auditor Enrollments

As of August 30, 2021 total enrolled Auditors who are in good standing, exceeded 4,400 with a summary by Auditor level provided below.

 

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To better serve our Membership and interested parties, we established a Resource Library on APSCA’s website. The library provides a comprehensive directory of member documents, key dates, exam guides, webinars for exam preparation and more! 

To further enhance this page, we have added:

‘Announcements’
Key messages will be posted to the new ‘announcements’ section for both general and exam related topics and they will be updated on an ongoing basis. 

Policies
APSCA’s latest policies and Guidance Documents are available. 

Visit our website to access the resources.

 

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Our monthly newsletter now reaches over 4,000 subscribers each month! We encourage our Member Firms to have their auditors subscribe to APSCA’s newsletter to stay up to date with APSCA Happenings by clicking here. Further, if you have a friend or colleague that may be interested in APSCA please share this newsletter with them via the link below.

 

 

 

 

 

FAQs
Check out APSCA’s FAQ page – it has been recently updated.
Don’t see a question / answer you’re looking for? Contact us at director@theapsca.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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​Verite  in partnership with the /  UN Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking held a workshop 31 October 2016 in New York, which many of APSCA members attended.  Follow this link to see their press release.  To get involved, contact Philip Hunter from Verite

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