The Role of Personal Certification in Strengthening Functional Safety Competence

20 Jan 2026

Validating the Knowledge and Capability of Individual Engineers Working within Safety Lifecycles

In the last decade, functional safety has shifted from a specialist discipline to a core capability across industrial automation, machinery, automotive, robotics, energy storage, hydrogen, and emerging technology sectors. As safety-related systems become more complex and interconnected, regulators, certification bodies, and end users have raised expectations regarding demonstrable competence.

One of the strongest responses to this demand has been the growth of personal functional safety certification schemes, which validate the knowledge and capability of individual engineers working within safety lifecycles.

Despite their increasing prevalence, the value of personal certification is often misunderstood. Some view it as a simple training credential; others see it as a box-ticking exercise. In reality, when implemented within a mature functional safety framework, personal certification plays a far more strategic role – strengthening compliance arguments, reducing project risk, accelerating certification efforts, and providing a shared technical language across the global safety community.

This blog examines the real value of personal certification, why the industry increasingly expects it, and how schemes such as Intertek’s Functional Safety Training & Personnel Certification Framework contribute to safer, more predictable product development.

Competence as a Compliance Requirement

A defining feature of all major functional safety standards is the requirement that lifecycle activities must be performed by individuals who are demonstrably competent. IEC 61508, IEC 62061, ISO 13849, ISO 26262, and IEC 61511 all contain explicit clauses on competence management, and certification bodies routinely ask organizations to provide evidence of qualifications, experience, and independence for those performing hazard analysis, safety requirement specification, verification, and assessment.

Personal certification provides a clear and defensible mechanism for meeting this requirement. Unlike internal training records, which vary widely in scope, rigor, and traceability, external certification offers an independent assessment based on a standardized body of knowledge. It demonstrates that the engineer understands the fundamentals of the safety lifecycle, systematic capability, architectural constraints, verification and validation expectations, and the intent behind the relevant standards.

In an audit or third-party certification process, this matters. Assessors are not only evaluating the technical content of deliverables; they are also assessing the capability of the team that produced them.

Raising the Baseline of Technical Quality

Functional safety deliverables often fail not because of complex technical errors, but because of inconsistent understanding. Misinterpreted SIL/PL allocation, incomplete SRS definitions, weak traceability, and misalignment between hardware and software lifecycle activities are among the most common causes of audit findings. Research suggests that 70-90% of safety related failures trace back to systematic errors and that over 90% of these systematic errors are due to human error. These issues are amplified when teams come from different industries, regions, or engineering backgrounds.

Personal certification helps establish a common baseline. Because leading certification schemes - such as Intertek's Functional Safety Training and Personnel Certification Program - teach the same lifecycle principles and the same interpretation of standards, certified individuals tend to approach problems using consistent terminology, structures, and expectations. This improves the quality of documentation, reduces rework, and significantly increases project predictability.

The effect is measurable. Organizations with certified engineers typically produce stronger safety concepts, more coherent hazard analyses, and more robust verification strategies. This consistency supports faster external reviews and more efficient communication with certification bodies.

Improving Project Efficiency and Reducing Risk

While personal certification is not a substitute for experience, it often accelerates the development of practical competence. Certified engineers understand the “shape” of the safety lifecycle – what needs to be done, when, why, and how evidence is expected to be presented. They recognise typical failure modes in Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic coverage Analysis (FMEDA) development, know how to structure a traceability argument, and are aware of the systematic capability expectations that underpin 61508-derived standards.

This awareness reduces the amount of back-and-forth with auditors, minimizes the risk of lifecycle omissions, and shortens the overall certification path. The industry is familiar with projects that lose months of schedule simply because foundational activities (such as SRS definition, independence of verification, or safety function decomposition) were not clearly understood from the outset. Certified individuals reduce the likelihood of these setbacks.

The impact is even more pronounced for complex systems, like battery management, hydrogen systems, robotics, autonomous machinery, where the interaction between hardware, software, and diagnostics requires disciplined lifecycle execution. Personal certification provides the conceptual foundation upon which this discipline is built.

Credibility, Confidence, and External Perception

Functional safety is ultimately about confidence: confidence that the analysis is correct, confidence that the lifecycle has been correctly followed, and confidence that the organization understands the implications of failure.

Certification helps build that credibility. Engineers who hold recognized credentials are perceived as more authoritative by customers, notified bodies, regulators, and OEM partners. This is not merely a psychological effect; it reflects an industry-wide trend towards formalized competence frameworks.

For consulting organizations, certification can be a differentiator in competitive tenders. For product manufacturers, it strengthens safety case arguments and contributes to market confidence. For engineering managers, it provides a structured method for developing and evaluating team capability. Certification does not guarantee expertise, but it does signal commitment, discipline, and validated understanding.

The Role of Intertek’s Functional Safety Training & Certification Scheme

Intertek’s scheme provides a structured, globally recognized route for engineers to develop and demonstrate competence across the functional safety lifecycle. It is designed not only to teach theory, but to equip practitioners with the practical skills needed to apply standards such as IEC 61508, IEC 62061, ISO 13849, ISO 26262 and IEC 61511 in real projects.

The program combines modular training with examination and experience requirements, ensuring that certification reflects both understanding and practical capability.

For organizations building or improving their Functional Safety Management System, the scheme integrates seamlessly into competence management plans, role definitions, and independent structures. For individuals, it provides a credible certification pathway supported by one of the world’s leading ATIC bodies.

Final Thoughts

The value of personal functional safety certification extends far beyond a certificate. It strengthens compliance arguments, raises the baseline of technical quality, improves communication and consistency across teams, and accelerates project delivery. It enhances credibility with regulators, customers, and certification bodies, and supports the development of both individuals and organizations.

As systems become more complex and regulatory expectations continue to rise, the industry will place even greater emphasis on competence. Personal certification - especially when grounded in rigorous schemes such as Intertek’s Functional Safety Training and Personnel Certification Framework - offers a reliable, effective, and globally recognizable way to meet that expectation.

In an industry where safety is non-negotiable, the competence of the people performing the work is one of the most critical risk-reduction measures available. Personal certification helps ensure that competence is visible, verifiable, and consistently applied.