Interesting discussion thus far..
My

, and thought of the day...
The responsibility still lies with the organization vis a vis the interactions of the QMS.
The linkages of the processes of the QMS are essential to ensuring that the company has what it needs to provide customer satisifaction.
If an organization sent auditors to a Lead Auditor course without really understanding the content, intent and expected results from that procurement of training...then wouldn't this indicate that the interactions between their Preventive or Corrective (as applicable), Purchasing, and Management Review Processes are not effective?
Management set the strategic direction....(i.e. maintain compliance to ISO 9001)
Someone decided that hey...some type of training for the internal audit process is needed - either to correct a nonconformity to keep it from recurring (corrective action), or to prevent an instance of nonconformity from occuring (preventive action) and came up with a plan to procure training.
Purchasing then got involved because...If internal auditing functions as a CHECK component in the PDCA of ISO 9001, then it has an effect on "subsequent product realization or the final product".
Therefore, the procurement of internal audit training from an external provider would need to follow the the requirements of 7.4.
And the corrective or preventive action was reviewed for effectiveness, and closed out.
Management is updated on the status of corrective preventive actions (along with the other required inputs) at the management review to assess the adequacy, suitability and effectiveness of the system. Management resets/continues the strategic direction.
Seeing these linkages between processes and functions helped our organization find an exceptional external provider of an internal audit training program that was performed in house by a trainer who had experience auditing a service organization, taught us to conduct audits by using our processes and records, without boring us with ISO speak, that met IRCA and RABQSA requirements in case our auditors wanted to use the training to qualify for additional certifications, and all at a price that was equivalant to the "Lead Auditor courses" you mentioned.
I may be an optimist...but...Isn't that the intent of implementing and maintaining a compliant Quality Management
System?
~Brunetta