Quality Technician Certification Requirements

A quality technician checks that what leaves a factory matches its drawing and specification, and you can start in the job with a high school education and a sharp eye. Employers hire on care, measuring skill and honest record keeping. The ASQ Certified Quality Technician credential then proves that skill on paper. Read on for the daily work, the skills, the exam and the next steps. Our CQT practice exam is there once you decide to sit it.

What does a quality technician actually do all day?

Picture a machined bracket coming off a line at seven in the morning. Someone has to pull it, read the drawing, choose a gauge, measure four features, record the numbers and decide whether the lot moves on. That person is the quality technician. Some companies say quality inspector, quality control technician, tester or sampler; the core task is the same: compare the product with what the customer and the drawing asked for, and leave a record that anyone can follow later.

The work splits into a few repeating jobs.

Inspect and measure

Incoming material, work in progress and finished goods are all checked. In one plant that means hand tools and gauges; in another it means a coordinate measuring machine, an optical comparator or a torque tester. Some technicians look at every item, others pull a sample using a sampling plan and decide on the lot from it.