The Irish Cleanroom Society and Cleanroom Training

The Society was set up in 1998 and the Constitution states that a fundamental part of its activity is to "advance the education of the public in matters relating to the practice and science of cleanroom technology and contamination control".

Since 2003 the Society has worked closely with the CTCB (Cleanroom Testing and Certification Board) and have run a series of training courses developed by the CTCB.

In 2007 the International Confederation of Contamination Control Societies (ICCCS), an international body comprising national cleanroom societies world-wide, felt that it was desirable to have an international standard for training courses, especially as the industry is such a global one.

Towards this end, the ICCCS set up an International Cleanroom Education Board (ICEB) to promote the preparation and accreditation of internationally-recognised educational courses that are based on the ISO cleanroom standards, and are designed for people who clean, construct, test and monitor, operate, and work as operators in cleanrooms.

Courses are accredited if they comply with the current 'Accreditation Guidelines' set down by the ICEB and available from the Secretary of the ICEB. Member societies of ICEB may apply for the accreditation of any course they have developed on any subject relating to cleanrooms and, as long as it complies with the Accreditation Guidelines, the course will be accredited. However, it is desirable to develop standard educational courses on important aspects of contamination control in cleanrooms that are harmonised and offered internationally by various member societies. In addition to fulfilling the requirements given in the Accreditation Guidelines, such as examination procedures, course advisory board, competency of the trainers/lecturers, exam appeals procedure, etc., the following additional requirements have to be satisfied.

The ICEB certified courses that the Irish Cleanroom Society offers are the following:

• Basic Cleanroom Technology Course
• Cleanroom Cleaning courses
• Testing and Certification Course

All courses follow a 'Basic Guidelines' quality assurance system and include:

• suitable course content
• relevant and up-to-date notes or text books
• expert lecturers
• the setting of clear and unambiguous exam questions
• suitable exam marking practices
• an examination and advisory board to audit the course and exams
• public traceability of a person's certificate

* The courses are usually oversubscribed so early registration is recommended.