S.M. Waqas Imam: “Publishing a course is a great motivation boost, as people admire you for your knowledge and skills.”
S.M. Waqas Imam, an industrial engineer by qualification, is a consultant with extensive experience of management systems across a variety of industries. As a Senior Consultant at Exoexcellence Consultants, he advises clients on various management standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001. Waqas tells us about working with the Alison team and making connections with Alison’s learners.
I am a Pakistani national and an industrial engineer. I graduated from NED University of Engineering and Technology in 2010 and have a decade’s worth of experience in the manufacturing and service industries. My experience includes working for various companies in Quality Assurance, Quality Management Systems, Integrated Management Systems, Health and Safety Management Systems and Environmental and Energy Management Systems. After this versatile experience, I was in a position to start my own consultancy firm, Exoexcellence Consultants. I thought it was time to share my competence and experience with the world. I have experience in publishing with Advisera and in training via the internal training departments of different companies I’ve worked for.
I came across Alison back in 2013. I had completed various courses on Alison like Understanding Cost of Quality and TQM Tools and Health and Safety courses. This inspired me with the idea of sharing knowledge. The idea materialised when I left my job and started my own consultancy firm. I contacted Alison and created my first course on ISO 9001. It was a tremendous joint effort between the Alison team and me. It wouldn’t have been easy getting on board without the help of the Alison Team. I got an amazing response from my course and I was tempted to create more free courses, like ISO 14001 and then ISO 45001. All the courses got a great response and it seems that learners enjoy my efforts.
There are many benefits to working with Alison. You can share your expertise and knowledge with the world and get great exposure with potential clients. Publishing a course is also a great motivation boost, as people admire you for your knowledge and skills. I’ve made many professional connections on LinkedIn with people who took my courses on Alison. Alison has a friendly team to work with and learning from them how to develop course and learning material is also one of the greatest benefits. Publishing with Alison is good revenue source.
Alison is continuously working to improve the publisher’s experience of developing new courses. Alison has unique publishing tools and working with these tools can be difficult. Therefore it’s important for prospective publishers to take Alison’s publishing course properly. Alison also have quality standards that you have to comply with. They will review your course and tell you to correct it. It’s a tedious process but it’s because they don’t compromise on their quality standards, which is good for both you and learners. So don’t lose hope. Be consistent with your efforts and your time and it will pay dividends.
My courses are mostly on ISO management systems, Lean manufacturing practices and the medical devices sector. With my courses, a basic familiarity with these concepts and a passion to learn is all you need to start. The courses are designed in a way to provide you with the basic knowledge.
People who have taken my courses are working for reputable companies and some have found jobs in new companies and are working as HSE Managers or Quality Assurance managers. After taking my courses, people proudly post their success stories on LinkedIn with their certificates. They enjoy the free learning experiences that are available out there.
I am proud to publish the ISO 45001:2018 – Principles of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems course. When the standard was first published, I was immediately tempted to create a course. I took an online course on ISO 45001:2018 only a month after it was published, I read a lot about it online and discussed it with professionals. The new standard was based on OHSAS 18001:2007, which I had already worked with, and my experience in Occupational Health and Safety also helped me to understand it. Just three months after the publication of ISO 45001, we were able to bring a brand new in-depth course on Alison with my own detailed interpretations of the clauses and terminologies. To be honest, the course I produced with Alison was far better than the paid video course I had taken online. Amazingly we offer it for free and for the greater good of the world, as ISO 45001 is a standard to ensure occupational health and safety.
Don’t take a course for the sake of completing it and getting a certificate. Give it due time and learn from it. Online courses and certificates only have worth if you can prove that, as a result, you can add value to an organisation.
I’ve often thought about what other courses I’d like to publish and I have a list of such courses in my mind. One of them would be How to be an Effective Quality Assurance Manager and another would be How to be an Effective Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager.
