For mashgichim
Mashgiach Training and Renewal
Starting out comes first on this page. If your training is running out, renewal is further down.
Starting out
Which Course You Take
Whether an agency is sending you decides which course you take and what you hold at the end.
An agency is sending me
Agencies that certify with AKO each run their own edition of the AKO Mashgiach Course. Your agency has to approve you before you start its edition, and there is no other way in. We cannot give that approval for them.
This is the only route that ends in an AKO Mashgiach ID card, and only if your agency decides you are eligible.
I’m training on my own
Anyone can take these two. Neither comes with an ID card, because only an agency can issue one. You get the training and a certificate showing you completed it.
The Accredited AKO Mashgiach Course carries 71 KIA credits alongside its 12.5 ACF continuing-education credits. Foundations also runs as a Hebrew edition, with the same certificate at the end.
Mashgiach Training
Foundations of Kosher Supervision (on our course platform)
This course does not qualify you to work as a mashgiach and does not come with an ID card. Your agency decides both.
- Spanish available
Certificate only. No ID card.
Enrollment and payment happen on our course platform.
Mashgiach Training
Accredited AKO Mashgiach Course (on our course platform)
This course does not qualify you to work as a mashgiach and does not come with an ID card. Your agency decides both.
12.5 ACF credits. No ID card.
Enrollment and payment happen on our course platform.
Renewal
Renewing Your Training
Your training runs three years. The exact date is printed on your card and shown in the mashgiach database. It is not three years from the day you finished the course, so look it up.
Renewal is a review of the fundamentals plus the full exam. You are not buying the same course again. It takes about an afternoon and it is available in English, Spanish and Hebrew.
You keep lifetime access to your original course. After renewing you will see both courses in your dashboard, which is expected and not a billing error.
If your training has already lapsed, you have not been removed from the database. Expired mashgichim stay listed as expired and go back to active when the renewal comes through.
What This Training Does Not Do
KIA does not decide who works as a mashgiach. Agencies do that, and each one sets its own bar.
Finishing a course does not put you in the mashgiach database and does not produce a card. Your agency has to approve you first, and agencies can revoke an approval at any time.
We train for foodservice and general kosher knowledge. Factory and industrial supervision is a different discipline and we do not teach it.
If you have a question of Jewish law, ask your agency’s rabbinic administrator or your own rabbi. We will not answer it, and you should be careful of anyone who would.
