Bob Woodham, MCQI CQP

Bob Woodham runs CambsQuality, a quality and environmental consultancy based in the east of England. He has been a CQI member since 1969.

The CQI, or as it was when I joined the Institute of Engineering Inspection, later the Institute of Quality Assurance, was and is the only professional body I have belonged to.

Initially, my employer at the time encouraged me to take the membership exam, which contained a number of modules relating only to inspection. Despite this, much of it was relevant to my work at the time and this gave me a firm foundation on which to start a career in quality assurance.

The qualification and the associated information gleaned from the IQA, through publications and branch meetings and also training courses, some run by the IQA and some publicised by it, have been essential in furthering my career and moving from an inspector to running my own quality and environmental consultancy.

The information from forums, contacts within the CQI and even the experience from running a CQI branch have benefited me enormously in my career. This is particularly true now that I need management skills as well as technical ones to run a consultancy.

I became a Chartered Quality Professional when the opportunity arose because, as I run a consultancy, it’s important that my credentials are endorsed by having the chartered status.

I would recommend CQI membership as a vital source of information to other quality professionals. I have benefited greatly from the wide variety of information available from the CQI – whether this is from the website, training courses, newsletters, Qualityworld or networking opportunities such as branch meetings.