SCC: Current status and important news

The negotiations between SCC VAZ Germany and the SCC Sector Committee Austria have not yet been concluded, but we would like to provide you with an update nonetheless.

What are the key points of the change that are already known?

In the field of personal certification:

• The validity of the SHE personal certificates was reduced from 10 years to 5 years and now corresponds to the accreditation standard ISO/IEC 17024. Old SHE personal certificates according to standard SCC 2011 are only valid until April 30^th, 2028.
• qualityaustria personal certificates that were still issued according to SCC 2011 from May 1^st, 2023, but already have a term of 5 years, can be converted by Quality Austria on request, whereby the term remains unchanged.
• qualityaustria personal certificates that were issued according to SCC 2011 and have a term of 10 years can be converted by Quality Austria to the new regulations "SHE Personal VAZ 2021 A" on request for a processing fee, whereby the validity may not exceed April 30^th, 2028.

In the field of system certification:

• Conversion from "SCC:2011" to "SCC VAZ 2021 A" can be carried out as follows:
  • Through a 2-hour audit (can also be carried out remotely)
  • As part of a surveillance or renewal audit with a separate 2-hour time block in the audit
• The contents of the audit are the adjustments to the regulations for training courses and their evidence as well as the audit of the internal implementation of the shortened duration of personal certificates.
• The switch from "SCC:2011" to "SCC VAZ 2021 A" must take place by June 30^th, 2025.

The license agreement with the FVMI as program owner for the two sets of rules "SCC VAZ 2021 A" and "SHE VAZ 2021 A" has already been concluded.

The accreditation according to "SCC VAZ 2021 A" and "SHE VAZ 2021 A" has already been applied for.

An exact date from when Quality Austria will receive the "SCC VAZ 2021 A" and "SHE VAZ 2021 A" accreditation is still open, as some points still need to be clarified within the sector committee or between the individual licensors.

As SCC certifications are usually integrated into an IMS (Integrated Management System) in conjunction with other standards, we have compiled a comparison of standards for you as an initial aid based on the information available to us.

We will inform you as soon as further information is available.

More information

• Clarification on the recognition between SCC VAZ 2021 and SCC Austria (SCC 2011) on the VAZ homepage, German link: Clarification VAZ
• Information from the WKO on the validity of SCC certificates, German link: Validity of certificates
• Information from the WKO on shortening the validity of SHE personal certificates, German link: Validity of personal certificates
• The international recognition SCC VAZ 2021 A is currently being prepared