Sterling Academy: online ISO, GRC and cybersecurity training for Philippine organisations

Maintained by Sterling International Consulting’s Philippine delivery team. Course details mirror the Sterling Academy catalogue.

Sterling Academy is Sterling International Consulting’s e-learning service: video courses with practice checkpoints, a final exam and a numbered Certificate of Completion, delivered through a learning management system that your organisation controls. It carries the same practical content Sterling’s lead auditors deliver in person across the Philippines, built so that every person working under your control can be trained, tested and recorded before your certification audit — not a sample of them, and not once.

The catalogue covers information security and privacy, quality, environment and safety, laboratory and inspection standards, and the practitioner skills every management system depends on: risk, nonconformity and documented information. Courses are open to organisations and to individual professionals. Enrolment is arranged through Sterling; there is nothing to install.

End to end, from one team

Most consultancies stop at the certificate; a few add a classroom day. A Sterling engagement puts the whole journey in one contract with one accountable team: implementation consulting through Design™ (guided) or Drive™ (fully managed) up to the certification audit; Effivity software to run the system; live internal auditor training for your audit team; Sterling Academy e-learning for every person working under your control, with preferential course access and special pricing, including complimentary awareness training for the standards you are implementing; a vulnerability assessment by Cyber Vantage 360 on information security engagements; and Sustain™ support after certification. E-learning for the whole workforce is the piece no classroom-only consultancy can offer, and it is the piece your auditor will test.

Who Sterling Academy is for

Organisations implementing a standard with Sterling. Awareness training for everyone, practitioner courses for the people who own processes and controls, and the completion records your certification auditor will ask for. Training that used to mean a hall, a projector and whoever could be spared for the afternoon now reaches every shift, every site and every new starter.

Certified organisations between audits. Staff turnover is the standing finding at surveillance audits: the awareness session happened, but half the people interviewed joined afterwards. Under Sterling Sustain™ new hires are trained as they arrive and refreshers run on a schedule, so the evidence is current on the day the auditor asks.

Organisations that want a training system, not a course. A dedicated learning space, a client administrator of your own, progress by learner and department, reminders, and a training status report you can hand to an auditor, a customer or a regulator.

Individual professionals. Twelve months’ access, learning at your own pace, a Certificate of Completion after the final exam, and the option to discuss questions with a practising Sterling consultant.

The catalogue

Awareness courses for the major management system standards, practitioner courses for the people who run the system, and security courses for every employee. Each course opens on Sterling Academy, where a short sample video shows the teaching style before you decide.

How it works

1. Sterling sets you up. Your Sterling consultant adds your organisation to Sterling Academy and names your client administrator — the person in your company who will manage learners.
2. You add your people. Your client administrator adds learners by CSV file, by pasting a list from Excel, or one by one on screen, and assigns the course. Each learner receives an e-mail invitation.
3. Learners learn at their own pace. Short video lessons with practice checkpoints between them; learners pause, revisit and continue on any device, and a practising Sterling consultant is available for questions where the engagement includes expert access.
4. Final exam and certificate. A final exam closes the course. Learners who score 70% or more receive a numbered Certificate of Completion with a QR code that opens the verification record online.
5. Records for your audit. Your client administrator downloads the training status report: who was assigned, who completed, when, and with what result.

Training as audit evidence

Every harmonised-structure standard makes the same two demands. Clause 7.2 requires the organisation to determine the competence people need, to make sure they have it, and to retain appropriate documented information as evidence of competence. Clause 7.3 requires people working under the organisation’s control to be aware of the policy, of their contribution to the effectiveness of the system, and of the implications of not conforming. ISO 9001:2026, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 22000 all carry these requirements under the same clause numbers, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 adds Annex A control 6.3, information security awareness, education and training.

Certification auditors do not test awareness by reading a policy; they test it by interviewing people. An attendance sheet from a session two years ago does not answer the question they are asking today. Sterling Academy gives you a per-person record of what was assigned, completed and passed, and a certificate that anyone can verify in seconds. The training itself is written from the auditor’s side of the table, by lead auditors who see the same findings in company after company, so learners understand what the requirement means in their own job rather than what the clause says.

Two honest limits. A completion record proves training happened; your organisation still has to decide what competence each role needs and evaluate whether the training was effective, and your Sterling consultant helps you document both. And a Certificate of Completion is a training certificate: internal auditors are certificated through Sterling’s live internal auditor courses, which issue a Certificate of Competence.

For Sterling consulting clients

Pricing

Sterling Academy publishes one list price per course, per learner, falling with team size. Every price includes twelve months’ access, the final exam and the Certificate of Completion. Prices are in US dollars and exclude taxes; for more than 200 learners, or several courses across an organisation, Sterling quotes a programme price.

Team size	Awareness courses (list price)
1–5 learners	US$49 per learner
6–10 learners	US$39 per learner
11–50 learners	US$29 per learner
51–200 learners	US$19 per learner

Practitioner and specialist courses (Risk Management, the 93 Annex A Controls course) are priced separately on their course pages. Sterling consulting clients receive preferential course access and special pricing through their Sterling consultant, including complimentary awareness training as part of the engagement. To enrol a team or yourself, contact us with the course and the number of learners.

Sterling Academy and live training, together

Online and live training do different jobs. Online awareness reaches every employee at a cost and pace no classroom can match, and it produces the per-person record. Live training with a Sterling lead auditor is where internal auditors are trained and certificated (Certificate of Competence), where implementation teams work through their own documents, and where management is briefed before an audit. A Sterling engagement plans the two together: the awareness course is assigned to everyone as the system is built, the internal auditor course runs live for the audit team, and refreshers and new-hire training continue online under Sustain™. Dates for the live courses are on the training page.

Sterling Academy: frequently asked questions

1. Is Sterling Academy training included with Sterling consulting?
Sterling consulting clients benefit from preferential course access and special pricing on Sterling Academy through their Sterling consultant, including complimentary awareness training for the standards you are implementing, as part of your engagement. Live internal auditor training for your audit team is part of every engagement as well. Your Sterling consultant confirms the courses and learner numbers in your proposal.

2. What does the Certificate of Completion confirm?
It confirms that the learner completed the course and achieved 70% or more in the final exam. Each certificate is numbered and carries a QR code that opens the verification record online. It is a training certificate, not an accredited auditor qualification: internal auditor competence is certificated through Sterling’s live internal auditor courses, which issue a Certificate of Competence.

3. Do the courses satisfy the awareness and competence requirements of ISO standards?
They give you the training and the records. Under the harmonised structure used by ISO 9001:2026, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 22000, clause 7.2 requires competence, with documented information retained as evidence, and clause 7.3 requires awareness of the policy, of each person’s contribution and of the implications of not conforming. Your organisation still determines the competence it needs and evaluates whether the training worked; the Academy’s completion records, exam results and certificates are the evidence you present.

4. How long do learners have access?
Twelve months from enrolment for each course, so learners can revisit modules after the audit and new starters can be added during the year.

5. Can individuals enrol?
Yes. Courses are open to individual professionals as well as organisations. Choose a course and contact Sterling; enrolment is arranged through Sterling.

6. In which language are the courses delivered?
English, with practical workplace examples. Learners can pause, revisit and continue at their own pace.

7. How do we train several hundred employees?
Your client administrator adds learners by CSV file, by pasting a list from Excel or on screen, assigns the course, and follows completion from the training status report. Learners receive an invitation by e-mail and work through the course individually.

8. Does e-learning replace live training?
No. It replaces the impossible task of putting every employee in a room. Awareness for everyone runs online; internal auditor training, implementation workshops and management briefings stay live with a Sterling lead auditor, and the two are planned together in your engagement.

Read next

• ISO 27001 certification in the Philippines — the standard most Academy learners start with.
• ISO 9001:2026 transition — the ISO 9001:2026 Awareness course is built on the sixth edition.
• Internal auditor and lead auditor training — the live courses that certificate your audit team.
• Gap analysis — find out where your system stands before you train.