FAQ

Several. That catches most people out, so it is worth being blunt about. There is a mashgiach certification course that agencies run in their own editions, an open version of it anyone can take, a renewal course, courses for kitchen staff, a course for people keeping kosher at home, and continuing education. They are for very different people and they are not interchangeable. If you tell us where you work we will tell you which one is yours.

It depends on one thing: whether an agency is sending you. If an agency is sponsoring you, you take that agency’s own edition, and you need their approval before you start. If nobody is sponsoring you, Foundations of Kosher Supervision is open to anyone. Only the agency editions can lead to an AKO Mashgiach ID card.

Kosher Empowered is for your own kitchen at home. Kosher as a Career is for people working in somebody else’s professional kitchen. They are often confused and they teach different things.

No. We train for foodservice and general kosher knowledge only. Plant supervision is a different discipline and you should look to one of the major industrial agencies for it.

The AKO Mashgiach Course is in English, Hebrew and Spanish. Kosher as a Career is in English and Spanish. Other courses vary, and each course page says.

The material is in the videos and the modules, with some downloadable supplements. There is no separate textbook.

Take your agency’s own edition of the AKO Mashgiach Course, pass the exam, and submit the card form with your photo. Your agency approves it, and then it goes to the printer. If you took Foundations of Kosher Supervision or the Accredited Edition, there is no card, because those are not agency editions.

No. Passing the exam is a step, not the last one. Your agency decides who is eligible, and different agencies set different bars.

To your agency’s office. Never to a home address, and this is not something we can make an exception for. Your agency hands cards out however it handles that.

There is no tracking. Professional ID cards ship without it, so no number exists for us to look up.

No. Our printer sets English characters only.

No. The spelling is yours to choose. Yaakov, Jacob and Yankel are all fine. Pick the one you would want an employer to read.

A clear photo with a plain background, head and shoulders visible. Nothing elaborate.

Use the replacement form and tell us what happened. If the error was ours it is free. If it was a typo in what was submitted, there is a $15 charge. When it is unclear, we make it free.

Same form. Replacements are $15 when a card is lost, and go to your agency office like the original.

Three years. The exact date is on your card and in the database, and it is not three years from the day you finished the course. If you need to know when yours runs out, look it up rather than working it out.

A review of the fundamentals and the full exam again. You do not repeat the whole course. It is online and takes about an afternoon, and it is available in English, Spanish and Hebrew.

Yes. Reminders go to you and to your agency automatically. If you are not getting them, we probably have an old email address for you.

No. You keep it, and you will see both courses in your dashboard.

Renewal keeps your training current. Whether a card is reissued is your agency’s decision, and they will tell you what else they need from you.

Online, inside the course.

That is a known quirk on the platform rather than anything you did. Write to us and we will set it to complete.

If your agency does not have an edition yet, ask their administrator to contact us.

No, and this is the mistake we see most often. Agency editions need approval before enrollment. Enrolling without it creates a problem for you and for the agency, and the approval you need comes from them.

No. Every AKO-member agency we work with has met the standard to join AKO. Beyond that we take no position, and we will not compare agencies for you.

We cannot answer that. We are a training center, not a supervising agency. Ask the agency whose symbol is on it.

No, and you should be careful of anyone who would answer it without knowing your situation. Ask the administrator of the agency that supervises you, or your own rabbi.

That is your agency’s decision, not ours. We train; they approve. Requirements differ from agency to agency and sometimes from role to role inside one agency, so the honest answer is to ask the agency you want to work for.

Almost every time, this is a different email address than the one used to register. Try any other address you might have used. If that fails, write to us with the addresses you have tried.

If you signed up using the Google button, you never set a password, so there is nothing to reset and the reset email will not help. Use “Sign in with Google” instead. It is the same account.

Log out and back in first, which fixes it most of the time. If it is still missing, write to us and we will enroll you manually.

All course sales are final. That is stated at checkout before you pay.

If you were charged twice, or you cannot get into something you paid for, tell us and we will fix it.

It is generated automatically when you complete the course, and you download it yourself.

Write to us and we will produce a corrected copy and email it to you.

No, there is only the one frame.

Email info@kosherinstitute.com, or WhatsApp +1 346 281 1273. We reply on whichever one you used.

Not at the moment.

An intake form, your logo, your mailing address for cards, a two-minute video welcoming your students, and a signed agreement. We start once all five are in.

That depends mostly on how quickly the documents come back. The stage that usually stalls is gathering them.

Yes. We can remove an address from your notification list.

An optional LearnWorlds reporting dashboard some agencies take, showing progress and completion for their own mashgichim. It renews annually and we invoice a month ahead.

No, and this one matters. The card database is the system that holds certifications, expirations and renewals, and that stays where it is. KIA OS is separate software for running an agency day to day: establishments, assignments, coordinators, records.