A4Q (Alliance for Qualification) is an international network that trains and certifies software quality professionals with a focus on practice. Founded by the certification bodies GASQ and iSQI, it adds practical formats to established theoretical standards such as ISTQB. One of them is the “Practical Tester” certification, where AI-supported learning environments teach hands-on testing skills rather than textbook knowledge.
Key Takeaways
- A4Q (Alliance for Qualification) lowers the barriers to training on purpose: course material and exams are easy to access and available in five languages, so trainers in regions without established providers can get started too.
- The A4Q Practical Tester is a practical add-on to the ISTQB standard, not a competitor. Candidates work through realistic scenarios such as writing a test plan or reporting a defect instead of ticking multiple-choice boxes.
- The AI-generated exam questions in the Practical Tester are maintained and corrected only by experts. Wrong input from users does not change the model, and a human still makes the final certification decision.
- The annual A4Q Testing Summit puts all talks online for free and keeps them there, reaching millions of people, including attendees from countries where a conference ticket would be out of reach.
What Is the Alliance for Qualification (A4Q)?
A4Q, short for Alliance for Qualification, is a network that trains and qualifies professionals in the software industry. “Alliance for Qualification. And that pretty much says it all. It’s about qualifying professionals,” says Stephan Goericke.
Behind A4Q are two certification bodies that operate worldwide, GASQ and iSQI, along with a number of other partners. The idea is simple: when every provider works on its own, the market doesn’t get the best results. Training moves fast, and trends have to be picked up quickly.
That is why A4Q works as a platform. Experts from different regions come together to build training courses, exams and conferences. The initiative grew out of large virtual conferences during the pandemic and has since become a network that produces content based on what the industry actually needs.
How A4Q Makes It Easier for Training Providers to Start
A4Q offers course material and exams with a low barrier to entry, so access to knowledge doesn’t depend on money or location. For many providers who want to build up training in their region, creating the material is the biggest hurdle.
A4Q takes that hurdle away. It supplies the course material, provides the exams and translates them into five languages. That way the courses reach colleagues in regions where no other training provider is active, in South America, Asia, Eastern Europe or Africa, for example.
You can see the effect in the reach. A4Q now gets to regions that used to be out of reach, because nobody has to invest a lot of money upfront just to get going. Stephan Goericke and Werner Henschelchen also see it as a way of giving back: both have been in the market with their companies for almost 20 years and want to return part of that success to the community.
What the A4Q Practical Tester Assesses
The A4Q Practical Tester is a certification that assesses practical testing skills, not only theoretical knowledge. When training providers and companies were asked what they wanted, the answer was clear: people want to move into practical work. Theory is one thing, the day-to-day job is another.
The certification is meant to complement established standards, not compete with them. The content still builds on ISTQB, which sets the standard in testing with more than one million certified people worldwide. The Practical Tester covers what goes beyond that.
In concrete terms, it is about tasks from a tester’s working day:
- How do I write a test plan?
- How do I report a defect?
- How do I actually find bugs in a specific system?
Werner Henschelchen describes the core as a shift from knowing to doing: “Up to now, it has always been about knowledge. You learned something, you had the knowledge. But now we really want to move on to teaching skills.”
How AI Changes Learning and Exams in the Practical Tester
In the Practical Tester, AI generates the exam questions instead of handing out a fixed list as a PDF. Several large language models are combined for this. Candidates get a large pool of questions and can work through the material in depth.
The same technology is used in the training itself. Instead of sitting through PowerPoint theory, participants work on practical test cases in an app, for example an online shop in which they have to find bugs. Knowledge isn’t just presented anymore, it gets applied to real examples.
The system has a clear limit, though. The AI doesn’t decide who passes. A human does.
“It’s really meant for learning and maybe as support for the examiners, but the actual exam decision is still made by a human. AI just isn’t good enough to be infallible.”
(Werner Henschelchen)
A4Q works according to ISO standards. The final certification decision is based on an assessment in which candidates have to demonstrate their skills, and it rests with the certification body.
Why Wrong Input Doesn’t Change the Language Models
The models don’t learn from what participants type in. If someone enters the same wrong answer a hundred times in the app, the model won’t adopt the mistake. Only an expert can change the content. That sets the A4Q application apart from freely available tools such as ChatGPT.
A Theory Certificate Says Little About Practical Skills
A passed exam proves knowledge, but not necessarily the ability to apply it. Some people study purely for the exam without gaining any hands-on experience. Employers know the result: someone shows up with the certificate but doesn’t convince in daily work.
That is where the combination pays off. A candidate who can show a theory certificate and proof of practical skills gives a much clearer picture of what they can really do. The practical certification complements the standard instead of replacing it.
When it launched in 2024, the Practical Tester was available in English, with French following as the second language.
The A4Q Testing Summit Gives the Community Access to Experts
The Testing Summit is a free virtual conference that A4Q runs once a year on a single day. In 2024 it took place on September 9, the Day of Software Testing. This format also started during the pandemic, out of the wish to give something back to the community, and kept growing afterwards.
What makes the Summit special is that it works both ways. Well-known experts give talks without being paid because they support the idea. In return, people who could never afford travel and a ticket to an in-person conference get access to these speakers.
The Summit has also sparked its own initiatives. One example is “Women in Testing,” which started as a women’s panel and took on a life of its own: participants connected and now meet regularly at hybrid conferences and panel discussions.
The talks stay online for free after the event and can be used for self-study. The model is financed by the core business: around 80 percent of A4Q’s revenue goes back into programs like this, into conferences and into new developments.
Where A4Q Wants to Go Next
A4Q sees itself as a catalyst that picks up trends early and tries them out, even if an initiative might fail. What counts is what the market needs. According to A4Q, for example, it was early to the topic of AI and software testing and helped build a certification in that area.
Content-wise, the focus is on skills training. The goal is that people starting their careers bring more than theoretical university knowledge: they should already have practical experience and be able to keep developing their skills on the job.
Beyond that, the focus is set to widen from testing to software quality engineering, including topics such as project management, requirements engineering and software architecture. In testing, more than 40 national boards already work with A4Q in one form or another, which shows how international the network is.
The personal motivation stays the same: reaching communities that would otherwise be left out. Havana, regions in Africa and Asia, countries such as Iran: through channels like these, A4Q reaches talented, well-educated people and opens up career prospects for them.
