Training and Certifications How to build a training catalogue, assign it, run sessions, and track the certifications that expire.

Training has three parts: a catalogue of what is available, assignments of it to people, and sessions where it is delivered. Certifications are tracked separately because they expire.

The Catalogue

Each entry carries a title, description, category, duration in hours, provider, whether it is mandatory, and the skills it covers.

The skills field is what makes the catalogue more than a list. Recording what a course teaches lets you ask who has a skill and who is missing it, which is the question training is meant to answer.

Mark mandatory training as mandatory. In regulated work the distinction is the difference between a training record and a compliance record.

Assignments

An assignment attaches a catalogue entry to a person with a due date, a status, a completion date, a score and notes.

Assign with dates. Training with no due date is not scheduled work, and it competes with everything that is.

Sessions

A session is a delivery: a title, a trainer, a location, a date, start and end times, and attendees.

Sessions are for taught training — a workshop, an induction. Self-paced material needs an assignment but no session.

Certifications

Tracked per person with a name, issuer, issue date, expiry date, a credential URL and a status.

The expiry is the whole point. Certifications lapse, and a lapsed certification is usually a compliance problem before anyone notices it is a training problem. Record the expiry when you record the certification, not later.

Skill Gaps

Because catalogue entries carry skills and assignments carry completion, you can see which skills your organisation has and where they are thin.

Useful in two directions: for the individual, what to learn next; for the organisation, whether a capability depends on one person. The second is the more valuable question and the less often asked.

Setting Up

1. Build the catalogue — what you actually offer, including external providers.
2. Tag skills on each entry.
3. Mark mandatory courses.
4. Assign with due dates.
5. Schedule sessions for taught material.
6. Record certifications with expiries as they are earned.
7. Review gaps at each review cycle, not once a year.

Common Questions

Someone did training elsewhere. Record it as a certification with the issuer and any credential link. External learning still counts.

Can we make training mandatory for a department? Mark it mandatory and assign it to the people it covers. Assignment is per person, so the record shows exactly who is outstanding.

A certification expired. Reassign the training and record the new certification when it is earned. Keep the old record — the history matters for an audit.

Does training feed performance? Not automatically. Link it through a goal if it should count. See KPIs and Goals.