QA/QC internship for freshers: ITPs, SPC and NCRs in 8 weeks

A QA/QC internship for freshers should teach you the documents a quality department lives on: the inspection and test plan, the control chart and the non-conformance report. Ours runs for 8 learning weeks, with the first 4 as the Free internship. Below are the real week titles, what each week asks you to produce and where the limits are.

One fact about our own programme, so you can judge everything here fairly. The EDWartens internships are a training programme, not employment. The Free internship is 4 weeks, online and self-paced, with all four weeks open on day 1. It has lesson cards and a weekly check. You also work in the Virtual Workplace, a simulated plant or office with AI colleagues, and AI marks your hand-ins. There is no stipend, and we do not promise a job, an interview or a placement.

Week 1: Quality basics: QA vs QC, ISO 9001 in plain words

You explain the difference between QA and QC, describe the PDCA cycle, name the seven quality management principles and sort quality documents into policy, procedures, instructions and records. The first hand-in is a Pareto of rejects from a made-up plant, plus a sort of tasks into QA and QC. ISO publishes the standard itself, and its ISO 9001 page is the place to start.

Week 2: Inspection and test plans (ITP) and checklists

You read an inspection and test plan and tell a hold point from a witness point. You build a checklist with real limits, use a basic sampling plan and keep a clean inspection record. This is the document that tells everyone what will be checked, by whom and when, so it is useful far beyond manufacturing.

Week 3: Measurement: tolerances, gauges and MSA basics

You read a tolerance, pick a gauge using the rule of ten, and explain calibration and traceability. You then work out %GRR and ndc from a gauge study. The lesson is that a measurement can be wrong, and a quality engineer must know how wrong before trusting a result.

Week 4: SPC: control charts and capability

You tell common cause from special cause variation, calculate X-bar and R chart limits, spot signals on a chart and work out Cp and Cpk. This is the last week of the Free internship, after which you sit the final exam. You do the arithmetic by hand, step by step, so that you understand what the chart is saying.

Weeks 5 to 8, if you extend

These weeks open when you extend the Free internship by 4 weeks (paid), or in the Engineer-verified edition, where an engineer also reviews your work.

• Week 5: Non-conformance, root cause and 8D. You write a clear NCR, tell correction from containment and corrective action, find a root cause with 5 Whys and a fishbone, and outline an 8D report.
• Week 6: PFMEA and control plans (APQP basics). You name the five phases of APQP, build a PFMEA failure chain, work out an RPN, explain Action Priority and fill the row of a control plan.
• Week 7: Site QA/QC: civil, welding and E&I inspection. You follow the site approval flow, run a pre-pour concrete check, outline weld inspection before, during and after welding, and describe insulation and loop checks for electrical and instrument work.
• Week 8: Audits, records and handover dossiers. You tell the three kinds of audit apart, follow the steps of an internal audit, write a finding from requirement and evidence, and check a handover dossier for completeness.

What do you hand in?

In the Virtual Workplace, a simulated quality engineer and quality manager send you work for a made-up plant that turns and plates contact pins. Everyone there is simulated and the companies are invented, but the documents are the kind a quality department keeps. In the free weeks you produce a reject Pareto, an inspection and test plan with a checklist, a gauge study report, and an SPC chart with a capability sheet. AI marks the hand-ins and says what to fix.

How does the exam work?

The Free internship ends with a final exam of 15 multiple-choice questions. You have 60 minutes, you pass at 60%, and it opens full screen and is marked automatically. You get 3 tries; after that a fresh paper opens 24 hours later. When you pass, you can claim the free certificate. It shows your real start and finish dates and your active hours, and it carries a QR code so anyone can verify it. How the certificates work explains what each one shows.

What can you show afterwards?

A verified record and a small portfolio of documents. The free certificate shows your real dates and active hours and has a QR code. The documents are your own: a Pareto, an ITP, a gauge study and a control chart. Describe them as training work. If someone asks, you should be able to explain each one in a minute, such as why a hold point matters or what a Cpk below 1.33 tells you.

If you want a person to look at your work, the paid Engineer-verified edition runs for 4 or 8 weeks. An engineer reviews what you hand in, and the documents are signed by Brijin Chacko. Details and prices, shown in your own currency, are on the Engineer-verified page.

Which free courses go deeper?

Our free courses on ISO 9001 and quality management systems, SPC and MSA, APQP, PPAP and control plans and welding inspection, mechanical QA/QC and NDT follow the internship weeks closely. For the wider quality profession, ASQ and AIAG are the usual reference bodies.

Where to go next

Read the full QA/QC internship page, see how the certificates work on the certificates page, or compare every track on the internships page. QA/QC sits in the Building, Quality & Projects group, one of four groups across 21 internships.

Last reviewed 9 Nov 2026.

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