PCG is proposing to introduce a tailored quality scheme for PCG's freelancing members. Members are invited to register their interest in being amongst the first freelancers to attain this valuable certification.

PCG has been working in close partnership with quality experts BVQI to develop the scheme, the first of its kind. Much of the administration has been simplified and automated, without removing individual responsibility.

The qualification process is likely to cost a freelance business in the region of £1,000, including the provision of training, audit and a quality management system, and will take between three and nine months to complete. On successful completion, the scheme will identify certified members as trusted consultants with professional standards for service delivery.

PCG believes that this certification will allow freelance businesses, in many cases, to bid for contracts that were previously inaccessible, including in the growing public sector, where UKAS-accredited ISO9001 is mandatory. It is also likely to give freelance businesses a distinct marketing advantage by clearly demonstrating professionalism.

"ISO9000 can prove prohibitively complex and expensive for small businesses," explains PCG director Richard Robson, "and without it even those consultants of an exceptionally high calibre are effectively barred from bidding for public sector work. Our scheme will be unique, not only in its approach to the market, but also in that it will contain many interesting but valuable features, it will be delivered at less than a third of the cost of any credible alternative, and - because we have chosen to go with the UKAS standard - its worth will be uncompromised."

On 5 March 2004, a delegation from PCG visited the DTI to receive congratulations from the Minister for Small Business, Nigel Griffiths MP, for achieving its own ISO9001 certification, the first trade association in the UK to attain this prestigious recognition.

Freelance businesses interested in participating in PCG's innovative scheme should register their interest online. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=16389432263