Oct 7, 2020

New courses in the Organic Integrity Learning Center launched

The National Organic Program has launched three new courses in the Organic Integrity Learning Center.

Record=keeping

Record-keeping by certified operations and certifiers is a key requirement of organic certification. This course introduces certifiers and inspectors to a variety of record-keeping systems encountered across the range of certified operations. It also examines challenges created by different operational activities and complexity levels. Finally, this course helps certifiers structure internal and collaborative record-keeping reviews across operations.

Organic System Plans

The Organic System Plan (OSP) is a document that serves as the basis for communication between an organic business, the certifier and the inspector. It is the foundation of the organic certification process. This course teaches requirements related to OSPs in the USDA organic regulations, examines the different functions of the OSP, discusses critical organic control points, and provides OSP evaluation and design considerations for certifiers.

Certification review essentials

This course is for organic certification reviewers and describes how effective reviews of the Organic System Plan (OSP) and inspection report support organic compliance. This course guides certification reviewers through OSP requirements and critical control points, OSP assessment, inspection report review, and applying skills using case scenarios. This course helps reviewers gain confidence in completing effective and efficient reviews that lead to appropriate and defensible certification decisions. 

Self-enrolling in Learning Center courses

Getting started

• Need a Learning Center account? Access sign-up page
• Have a Learning Center account?  Access site 

How to register for a course

Once logged into the USDA AMS National Organic Program, Organic Integrity Learning Center, signing up for a course is like buying a product at an online store, but all training is free.

To register for an NOP course in the Organic Integrity Learning Center, follow these steps:

1. Click on Register for Course in the menu.
2. Available courses in the program will appear.
3. Click the green Register button for each desired course.
4. The green button will change to a blue button that says, Added to Cart.
5. You will see a shopping cart with the number of courses selected. 
6. Click the link that says Proceed to Checkout.
7. Note: The tuition is $0 – All training in the Learning Center is free!               
8. A list of the courses you selected will appear. To confirm enrollment, select the green Confirm button.
9. Go to your Dashboard to launch the course.
10. Click on the course title from the list of Active Courses. 

Need more? Access more detailed instructions with screen shots

Notes:

• Once you have completed a course, it will appear under the list of Completed Courses. 
• To access all completed course content, register for the National Organic Program Training Archive course to review (read-only) material from all OILC courses.