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Our History and Mission

The Scottish Quality Management Centre balance a serious commitment to Quality and improvement with down-to-earth leadership and personality.

SQMC is a unique, home-grown training organisation serving the British Isles, Europe and elsewhere.

Since our conception almost 30 years ago, we have steadily progressed from a think-tank of the University of Stirling's Management Science faculty, to become one of Europe's leading providers of Quality, Environmental and Safety qualifications. It's our pleasure and passion to assist a clientele of progressive individuals, SMEs and large multinationals to focus effectively on achieving their goals with maximum efficiency, in the industrial and service sectors.

Our small but brilliant team has ensured SQMC's prominence at the forefront in our niche sector since our earliest days. In 1992, we became the first organisation approved by the Institute of Quality Assurance (now Chartered Quality Institute) to provide IRCA certified Lead Auditor training north of the border. Shortly after that, it was SQMC's Director of Programmes, Ian Hannah, who drafted the original "180" Internal Quality Auditor programme on IRCA's behalf. With such a prestigious heritage, it's little wonder that SQMC's mission more than a quarter of a century later continues to focus on management systems innovation.

However, our mission goes much further than that. We conscientiously seek to exceed our clients' quality-of-service expectations, and we achieve this by intuitively recognising otherwise unnoticed opportunities to provide a solution to a certain want or need. Furthermore, we are ever-mindful to be respectful, ethical and reliable in all of our relationships.

 

Our Historical Timeline

 

  • 1984

    The International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA) is formed

  • 1987

    Leading Quality Standard, BS 5750, is superseded by ISO 9001:1987

  • 1989

    Stirling University Professor, Brian Moores, forms the concept of the Scottish Quality Management Centre (SQMC)

  • 1990

    Ian Hannah is appointed, as Director of Programmes, to 'activate' SQMC; and develop syllabi of short courses

  • 1992

    SQMC achieve "approved" status with the IRCA in London

    SQMC debut Scotland's first IRCA Lead Auditor course 

  • 1993

    Ian Hannah is the architect of the University's first master's degree in Quality Management

    Ian Hannah drafts the original "180" Internal Quality Auditor programme on IRCA's behalf 

  • 1994

    SQMC debut our IRCA-registered Internal Quality Auditor course at Stirling Management Centre 

    SQMC awarded the Joe Bosworth trophy for Excellence in Quality Management training

  • 1995

    SQMC awarded 'Centre of Excellence' status by the Institute of Quality Assurance (now the Chartered Quality Institute) for the innovation of Scotland's first post-graduate degree in Quality Management; a concept which would be emulated later by other universities nationwide

  • 1998

    SQMC is restructured and transformed into a private limited company, independent of the University; with a Head Office in Dunfermline

  • 1999

    'SQMC Online' is launched to a worldwide audience

  • 2000

    Thanks to its 'Ltd' status, SQMC now has the ability to provide consultancy assistance to clients who have long requested it 

  • 2001

    SQMC acquire additional premises, at Albany Business Centre, Dunfermline 

  • 2003

    SQMC introduce the iconic tri-colour stripes as part of our corporate identity. The azure blue representing our roots in Scotland's education sector; the red representing our English and Northern Irish team members; and the darker blue representing our global outreach to the 'blue planet' 

  • 2004

    SQMC move to larger facilities at Dunfermline Business Centre 

  • 2005

    SQMC's first overseas office is opened, in Vancouver, Canada; where Ian Hannah began his career in Quality Assurance 

  • 2009

    Former Scottish Enterprise advisor, Karen MacKenzie is promoted to the role of SQMC's Head of Strategic Development 

  • 2010

    The Scottish Quality Management Centre takes up its new residence within the conferencing and business facility on campus at Carnegie College, Dunfermline (since renamed Fife College)

  • 2012

    Further expansion of SQMC's infrastructure as Karen MacKenzie, Ron Rivans and creative design and business strategy specialist, Kenny Hannah, join the Board of Directors

  • 2013

    Ian Hannah takes well-earned semi-retirement, whilst Karen MacKenzie takes over his duties as chief course designer

  • 2014

    SQMC celebrates its Silver Jubilee

  • 2015

    SQMC become 'Partners in Excellence' with non-profit, EFQM proponent, Quality Scotland

  • 2016

    Launch of Version 7 of SQMC Online; built entirely in-house using cutting edge security and Growth-Driven Design methodology

Coronavirus update (04/06/20): In May, we successfully launched our Virtual ISO 9001 Internal Auditor course, a bespoke design developed specifically for an online learning environment; and we welcome your bookings onto our forthcoming virtual courses, available every month. Please see our course schedule for dates. We hope that our face-to-face training services can resume in August 2020, when the Scottish government's lockdown exit route map is expected to have entered into 'Stage 3', and are therefore accepting bookings for August onwards. All bookings will be extremely flexible, with sensitivity to the human factor of this pandemic. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this.