Board of Environmental, Health & Safety Auditor Certifications
CERTIFICATION
Qualification Criteria
BEAC offers the CPEA certification in the following specialty programs:
Management System Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences worldwide, an equivalency review can be requested by candidates who do not have a bachelor's degree.
Professional Experience: A candidate for certification must have four years of relevant work experience as defined below. In terms of audit experience, a candidate must perform a minimum of 20 MS audits for a minimum of 100 days within the past four years. Of the 100 days, a minimum of 20 days must be conducted on site.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to application for certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training as outlined in the Definition of Relevant Experience and Training Elements shown below and may be internal or external to the applicant's organization.
Character Reference: Candidates must arrange for submission of two written character references from responsible persons such as a supervisor, a manager, or an educator. Individuals providing references must have known the candidate for a minimum of two years.
Certification Examination: Candidates must successfully complete BEAC's 6-hour Management System examination. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
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DEFINITION OF RELEVANT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training for the Management System Certification must include any combination of environmental, health and safety (EHS) science and technology; EHS management and technical aspects of business activities including facility operations; requirements of EHS laws, regulations, and related documents at the national and local jurisdictional levels; evaluation, implementation, and management of EHS compliance; EHS standards against which management systems and compliance audits may be conducted; management systems and compliance audits procedures, processes,and techniques; and principles of EHS compliance and compliance implementation. |
Environmental Compliance Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher plus. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences worldwide, an equivalency review can be requested by candidates who do not have a bachelor's degree .
Professional Experience: A candidate for certification must have four years of relevant work experience as defined below. In terms of audit experience, a candidate must perform a minimum of 20 environmental compliance audits for a minimum of 100 days within the past four years. Of the 100 days, a minimum of 20 days must be conducted on site.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to application for certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training as outlined in the Definition of Relevant Experience and Training Elements outlined below and may be internal or external to the applicant's organization.
Character References: Candidates must arrange for submission of two written character references from responsible persons such as a supervisor, a manager, or an educator. Individuals providing references must have known the candidate for a minimum of two years.
Certification Examination: Candidates must successfully complete BEAC's 6-hour Environmental Compliance examination. Candidates having other audit-related certifications (CIA, CPA, CISA, etc.) may be exempted from certain portions of the exam. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
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DEFINITION OF RELEVANT ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training must include identifying environmental aspects and impacts, assessing compliance with environmental laws and regulations, and/or applying professional environmental compliance auditing practices. It may include any combination of: environmental science and technology; environmental management and technical aspects of business activities including facility operations; requirements of environmental laws, regulations, and related documents at the national and local jurisdictional levels; evaluation, implementation, and management of environmental compliance; environmental standards against which management systems and compliance audits may be conducted; management systems and compliance audits procedures, processes, and techniques; and principles of environmental compliance and compliance implementation. |
Health & Safety Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences worldwide, an equivalency review can be requested by candidates who do not have a bachelor's degree .
Professional Experience: A candidate for certification must have four years of relevant work experience as defined below. In terms of audit experience, a candidate must perform a minimum of 20 health and safety audits for a minimum of 100 days within the past four years. Of the 100 days, a minimum of 20 days must be conducted on site.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to application for certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training in relevant experience elements identified below.
Character References: Candidates must arrange for submission of two written character references from a responsible person such as a supervisor or a manager. Individuals providing references must have known the candidate for a minimum of two years and have knowledge of the candidate's experience and skills relative to health and safety compliance and auditing.
Examination: Candidates must successfully complete BEAC's six-hour Health & Safety examination. Candidates having either a CIH or CSP designation may be exempted from certain portions of the exam. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
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DEFINITION OF RELEVANT HEALTH & SAFETY EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training must include identifying health and safety aspects and impacts, assessing compliance with safety-related laws and regulations, and/or applying professional health & safety auditing practices. It may include any combination of: safety engineering; industrial hygiene; health and safety management and technical aspects of business activities including facility operations; requirements of OSHA laws, regulations, and related documents at the national and local jurisdictional levels; evaluation, implementation, and management of health and safety compliance; health and safety standards against which management systems and compliance audits may be conducted; management systems and compliance audits procedures, processes, and techniques; and principles of health and safety compliance and compliance implementation. |
Responsible Care® Qualification Criteria
Education: Bachelor's degree or higher. To allow for consideration for cultural and societal differences worldwide, an equivalency review can be requested by candidates who do not have a bachelor's degree .
Professional Experience: A candidate is required to demonstrate 4 years relevant work experience. Clear evidence of work experience, such as in the chemical industry or EH&S fields that provides an understanding of these issues shall be required. Each candidate must have performed at least 4 EMS-related audits consisting of at least 206 total days within the past two years. Relevant work experience shall be considered verifiable experience gained during the last ten (10) years and shall be defined as experience that develops skills and understanding in at least two of the areas described below.
Auditor Training: Formal training as an attendee or provider is required within the three years prior to application for certification. This training shall consist of 40 hours of formal training in relevant experience elements identified below. As part of this training, the auditor shall successfully complete an ACC qualified Responsible Care® course in accordance with "Responsible Care® Auditor Course Requirements."
Character References: Candidates must arrange for submission of two written character references from a responsible person such as a supervisor or a manager. Individuals providing references must have known the candidate for a minimum of two years and have knowledge of the candidate's experience and skills relative to health and safety compliance and auditing.
Examination: Candidates must successfully complete BEAC's six-hour Responsible Care® examination. This examination is held at various locations throughout the year.
DEFINITION OF RELEVANT RESPONSIBLE CARE® EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING ELEMENTS Relevant experience and training must include verifiable experience gained during the last ten years and shall be defined as experience that developes skills and understanding in at least two of the following areas: implementation of Responsible Care® programs; EH&S science and technology; work experience gained by actual hands-on roles in the chemical process industry and/or EH&S services; product stewardship, transportation or distribution of chemical products; requirements of EH&S laws, regulations and related documents; and EH&S/Responsible Care® management systems and standards or related auditing procedures,processes and auditing techniques. Auditor training must include 40 hours in the last three years and successful completion of an ACC qualified Responsible Care® course in accordance with "Responsible Care® Auditor Course Requirements" (RCMS206.00). |
Certification Examination Retake and Exemption Policy:
The BEAC certification examinations are set on a three-part module basis: Part I (multiple choice); Part II (multiple choice and/or short answer; Part III (essay). An applicant who passes Part I of their initial certification exam, may be exempt from taking Part I of any subsequent certification exam they apply for within five years.
An applicant who does not pass their initial certification exam (a total score of 70% or better) may carry forward, up to five (5) years, the score of the module/s of the exam that they do pass and only retake that module/s of the exam that they did not pass.
Those holding the following certifications are exempt from Part I of the BEAC exams: CIA, CPA
Those holding the following certifications are exempt from Part II of the BEAC Health & Safety exam: CSP, CIH
Those holding the following certification are exempt from Part II of the BEAC Environmental Compliance exam: CHMM
Certification Examination Pass Rates:
2007 EXAM PASS RATE PERCENTAGES
| EXAM TYPE | PART I | PART II | PART III | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Environmental Compliance |
94% |
41% |
37% |
59% |
Health & Safety |
75% |
20% |
42% |
58% |
Mangement System |
100% |
70% |
63% |
80% |
Responsible Care |
76% |
63% |
65% |
63% |
Overall (based on number of examinees) |
86% |
52% |
50% |
63% |
- Part 1 is the same for all exams, consisting of 131 multiple choice questions focused on Auditing Principles, Standards, and methodology.
- Part 2 is different for each exam, and can include multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions focused on the specialty’s technical subject matter (legs & regs).
- Part 3 is essay questions, different for each exam specialty.
