The Recruiter Accreditation Scheme (RAS) has been developed by MRS and the Association for Qualitative Research (AQR) to raise the profile and status of recruiters, by devising a training and accreditation scheme that recognises the knowledge, skills and competence of professional recruiters.
The use of accredited recruiters is now a mandatory obligation, for MRS Company Partners, when buying qualitative research recruitment services.
The overall aim of the scheme is to improve the quality of qualitative recruitment by all parties throughout the qualitative recruitment supply-chain.
The RAS is designed to recognise the range of knowledge and understanding required to:
The RAS programme combines online training and assessment with self-directed work-based learning. All of the RAS online training is available for use without financial charge. The materials are available here: https://ras.mrs.org.uk/
Research recruiters working across a wide range of sectors who undertake research recruitment, and those who commission qualitative research and/or undertake research recruitment as part of a wider research role:
More information on the structure and learning outcomes of RAS can be found in the RAS syllabus document.
The assessment is completed online under the guidance of MRS, as the awarding body for the accreditation.
Comprises 40 multiple-choice questions covering all five RAS modules sat online.
At least 3 questions must be answered correctly from modules 1 & 2, at least 5 correct from modules 3 & 5 and at least 8 correct from module 4.
Pass requirements
Re-takes for failed assessments will cost £25 +VAT per re-assessment
You can access the RAS Assessment here
How long will it take?
It is recommended you undertake around 40 learning hours of study of the learning materials which support RAS to prepare for the assessment.
It is advisable, even if you are an experienced recruiter, that you review all modules of the training before taking the assessment, in particular the modules: New and Emerging Recruitment Techniques and Data Protection and GDPR.
Read full details about how the RAS training and assessment works and can be accessed.
Entry requirements
RAS is open to all individuals who wish to participate.
MRS and AQR online RAS training – FREE to all – go to the RAS online training site
Recruiters who are already a Member of MRS – No charge for accreditation
Recruiters who are Non-Members of MRS:
The accreditation includes:
Thereafter there is an annual accreditation fee which includes MRS membership and continued accreditation. The period of accreditation is for three years. In order to maintain accreditation after three years recruiters are required to re-take the accreditation assessment.
Company Accreditation
For companies, there are two types of accreditation.
RAS Accredited Company Application Form
(The form is a writeable PDF, in order to populate please download the form and click on the icon in the side navigation)
RAS Accredited Company Annual Update Form
(The form is a writeable PDF, in order to populate please download the form and click on the icon in the side navigation)
It is recognised that for those telephone units which have had their telephone operations certified to ISO 20252 (*and either have 2012 Certification or have certified to Annex B for the 2019 standard) and/or IQCS, and the training and monitoring requirements that this place upon the telephone unit, will mean there is less need for all the recruiters to undertake accreditation.
For IQCS and/or ISO 20252* Certified Telephone Units to become accredited as an In-House RAS Accredited Company requires only the Compliance/Quality Manager responsible for training and the quality standards to be accredited as an individual Accredited Recruiter, not 50% of the recruiter staff as for non IQCS and ISO 20252* organisations. In these instances, the individual recruiter fees would apply. This does not prevent more staff from a Telephone Unit being individually accredited if they wish to.
RAS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Module (EDI)
A NEW module for the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme (RAS), that focuses on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is now available.
This module will initially be optional and standalone to the core RAS accreditation. Only recruiters who have already achieved RAS Accredited Status are eligible to sit assessment for this module.
As recruiters you identify, approach, recruit and liaise with participants to take part in research and data collection projects. This means that you have contact with a range of people with different characteristics e.g., different ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientation and physical and mental health conditions. As part of research recruitment, you may also be asked to find participants with specific characteristics to meet recruitment quotas, etc.
This new module explains the concepts, principles and terms used and the application for research and research recruitment. This guidance will help you understand your obligations and the steps you should take to recruit participants in an inclusive way, your legal obligations and the best practice requirements when doing so. The module provides best practice when collecting data on sexual orientation, sex and gender, physical disabilities and mental health conditions, and ethnicity when discussing inclusive approaches. However, inclusion is much bigger than these characteristics and the module also includes other considerations such as age, social inclusion, culture, religion and nationality.
The module is split into 9 sections:
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You will be given 30 minutes to complete as many questions as possible. The assessment is made up of 20 random questions covering all 9 sections within the module detailed in the training provided.
You will receive an overall grade (Distinction, Merit, Pass or Fail). The overall grade awarded is calculated on the total number of correct answers achieved in the online multiple-choice test:
Distinction: 19 – 20
Merit: 15 – 18
Pass: 11 – 14
Fail 10 – 0
The training materials are free to access and in order to sit assessment, at no cost, you will need to hold active MRS Membership and active RAS accreditation.
The new EDI Module training materials can be found here. Assessment can be found here
Ways you can verify a recruiter:
The overall aim of the scheme is to improve the quality of qualitative recruitment by all parties throughout the qualitative recruitment supply-chain.
To qualify as an accredited recruiter candidates must pass an online assessment. For companies, accreditation of an organisation is External and In-House.
There are two types of RAS Company Accreditation.
Organisations which undertake in-house recruitment only will achieve RAS Accreditation (In-house) once 50% or more of the organisations’ staff undertaking recruitment have successfully achieved accreditation. RAS Accreditation (In-house) will also apply to those organisations that have met the 50% staff requirement and have yet to achieve the criteria for External RAS Company accreditation.
For those organisations that use the services of external freelance recruiters RAS Accreditation (External) will be given once 50% or more of all in-house staff undertaking recruitment are RAS Accredited Recruiters and at least 50% of all external recruiters (such as independent recruiters) that are used by the organisation are RAS Accredited Recruiters.
RAS Accredited Company – External supersedes RAS Accredited Company – In House accreditation as External accreditation covers both the internal and external recruitment activities of the company.
Acumen Field Ltd
Ardent Fieldwork Ltd
Beam Fieldwork & Give Opinions
Beaufort Research
Bunnyfield
Criteria Fieldwork Ltd
Dig Fieldcraft Ltd
DJS Research Ltd
Face Facts Research
Feedback Market Research
Field Solutions Market Research
Firefish Ltd
First for Fieldwork
Further Afield Ltd
iThoughts ltd
Launchpad Research Ltd
Leftfield Associates
M3 Global Research
Perspective Research Services Ltd
Plus Four Market Research Ltd
Pook Fieldwork
QRS Market Research
Roots Research
Scout Field Experts
Taylor McKenzie Research & Marketing Ltd
The Schlesinger Group UK
Viewpoint Services
Across The Board Fieldwork
Acumen Healthcare
Angelfish
Brand Ignite
Bright Research & Co Ltd
Code 3 Research Ltd
Connected Market Research
ES Research
Field Mouse Research Ltd
Field Sauce Ltd
FieldworkHub Ltd
GKA
Gromotion Ltd.
Hawkins Research Ltd
Kwei Vision Research
LDA Research Ltd
MIS Group Intl. Ltd
Opinion Health
Paton Williamson Consultancy
People for Research
Prevision Research Ltd
Research Opinions Ltd
Research Northwest
Research Today Limited
Ronin Internation Ltd
Saros Research Ltd
Serrula Research
Smart Connect Research Ltd
Trend Market Research Ltd
As the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme enters its fourth year, Lisa Dixon at Taylor McKenzie reflects on the importance of only using RAS Accredited recruiters, and on how compliance with the scheme enables Taylor McKenzie to maintain high recruitment standards and build productive and successful working relationships:
At Taylor McKenzie our fieldwork team run over 400 projects a year. We organise research all over the world, with the majority of our projects happening in the UK.
When organising a project one of the first questions we ask is … Where would you like the participants to be from? When locations have been selected, we can choose an experienced local recruiter to help us find reliable, interesting & representative people to take part in the research.
Our great relationships with local recruiters are key to the success of our projects, a good recruiter is worth their weight in gold and we know the best in the industry. It all sounds pretty straightforward… But there can be occasions when, for example, the location is very rural, and not covered by anyone we know, or our trusted recruiter is on holiday or just too busy to help.
Using someone new at this point can be an exceptionally stressful process, with a tight turnaround time on most projects you might not be able to go through a full reference process and this is where RAS accreditation really comes into its own. With RAS you know that the recruiter will be striving to maintain high standards across their work, it’s a fantastic ‘shortcut’ for us and helps provide the starting point for a great new working relationship.
RAS ensures that all market research recruiters are working to the same high standards, as well as being up to date on the latest data protection guidelines, and the MRS code of conduct. The list of RAS accredited recruiters is easily accessible on the MRS website and it makes building new working relationships with recruiters a much more relaxing process.
Great research needs great participants and RAS accreditation is really starting to play an important and meaningful role in the industry. The accreditation allows our team at Taylor McKenzie Fieldwork to focus on making every project as straightforward as possible for everyone involved.
Lisa Dixon, Director, Taylor McKenzie Fieldwork
Taylor McKenzie are an External RAS Accredited Companies who use individual RAS Accredited Recruiters for their projects as part of compliance to the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme. You can find RAS Accredited Recruiters listed on our register here. You can find out more on compliance to the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme in our most recent webinar.
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