Focus on Internal Audit Leadership

Take your internal audit capability further.

Internal Audit Leadership is a focus course for auditors who are ready to go beyond participating in audits and take on greater responsibility for how internal auditing works in their organisation.

Whether you have recently completed the Management Systems Auditor course or you are an experienced internal auditor looking to strengthen your programme, this course gives you the practical skills and tools to build a more effective, more consistent, and more valuable internal audit function.

This is not a course about auditing from scratch. It is about what happens after you know how to audit: how you plan and manage an audit programme that stays relevant, how you develop the auditors around you, how you engage leadership, and how you make internal auditing genuinely useful to the organisation rather than just a compliance exercise.

Who this course is for

This course is for internal auditors who are ready to take on greater responsibility for audit quality, auditor development, and the overall effectiveness of the internal audit programme. That includes:

• Internal auditors moving into audit coordination or audit programme management roles
• Experienced internal auditors who want to build a stronger, more risk-based audit programme
• Quality, safety, environment, and information security managers responsible for overseeing internal audit activities
• Those responsible for onboarding, mentoring, or developing new internal auditors
• Audit programme managers looking to improve audit consistency, engagement, and organisational value
• Anyone who has completed Management Systems Auditor and wants to extend their capability in an internal audit leadership context

By the time you complete Internal Audit Leadership, you will be able to:

• Build and manage an internal audit programme that is risk-based, practical, and aligned with your organisation's priorities rather than just a schedule of audits
• Make internal auditing genuinely useful to the organisation, connecting audit outcomes to decision-making, risk management, and continual improvement
• Onboard, support, and develop internal auditors with confidence, using structured tools for observation, coaching, feedback, and competence tracking
• Identify and address the real challenges that make internal audits less effective: checklist-driven audits, poor auditor confidence, weak management engagement, and findings that go nowhere
• Lead audit conversations and build relationships with process owners and management that improve participation and cooperation across the organisation
• Evaluate auditor competence, identify gaps, and put in place practical development plans that build capability over time
• Respond to the situations internal audit leaders actually face: auditors auditing colleagues, resistance from process owners, incomplete evidence, competing priorities, and remote audit challenges
• Review and improve the internal audit programme based on performance trends, audit outcomes, and organisational change

What you'll learn

Internal auditing is rarely the problem. The way it is planned, resourced, communicated, and followed up usually is. This course works through the four areas that determine whether an internal audit programme actually delivers value to the organisation.

Making internal audit worth doing

Most organisations conduct internal audits. Far fewer get genuine value from them. Audits become tick-box exercises when they are disconnected from risk, when findings are not followed up, and when process owners see the audit as something that happens to them rather than something that helps them.
This section covers what effective internal auditing actually looks like in practice, the responsibilities that sit across management, programme managers, auditors, and process owners, and the difference between an audit that confirms conformance and one that drives meaningful improvement.

Building a programme that stays relevant

An audit schedule is not an audit programme. A programme that audits every area at the same frequency regardless of risk, that does not adapt when the organisation changes, and that treats last year's plan as this year's default is not providing the coverage the organisation actually needs.
This section covers how to build and manage a risk-based internal audit programme that focuses resources where they provide the greatest value, adjusts when priorities shift, and gives management the visibility they need to make better decisions.

Developing auditors who can do the job

Competence is demonstrated in the room, not on a certificate. An auditor who knows auditing theory but struggles to follow an evidence trail, handle a defensive process owner, or document a finding clearly is not yet a competent auditor.
This section covers what auditor competence looks like in practice, how to assess whether competence matches the demands of the audit being planned, and how to build a structured development pathway that moves auditors from observation through to independent practice, with the tools to support every stage of that journey.

Leading when it is not your job title

Internal audit leadership is not a role that always comes with formal authority. It is exercised by anyone who coordinates an audit, supports a newer auditor, communicates findings to management, or works to build the organisation's confidence in the internal audit process.
This section covers the practical skills of internal audit leadership: how to support auditors before, during, and after audit activities, how to build engagement with process owners and management, how to handle the real challenges that internal audit leaders face, and how to review and strengthen the programme over time.

What audit tools and resources included in this course

This course includes a suite of ready-to-use tools designed to support every stage of the internal audit leadership journey, from onboarding a new auditor through to managing an ongoing programme. These are working documents you can adapt and use in your own organisation immediately.

• Internal Audit Programme Tools
• Auditor Development Resources
• Observation, Feedback and Coaching Tools