How certificates and expiry work
A certificate shows that someone finished a course. Giving it an expiry date turns it into proof that runs out, which is what you need for training that has to be repeated, such as annual fire safety. This article covers when a certificate is issued, how its expiry date is worked out, what changes for the learner when it expires, how reminders work, and what happens when you change a learner’s result.
The two course settings
Section titled “The two course settings”Two settings in Course settings control certificates for a course.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Certificate of completion | People who finish the course get a certificate, using the design you choose in Select certificate |
| Certification valid for (months) | How long the certificate lasts. Leave it empty and certificates from this course never expire |
When a certificate is issued
Section titled “When a certificate is issued”Someone gets a certificate when they complete or pass the course. Someone who fails it does not.
Where a course has a post-course process — an attestation or an observed competency sign-off — the certificate waits for it. Finishing the content holds the course under Awaiting sign-off, and the certificate is issued when it is signed off, dated from then. See How the post-course process works.
A course cannot be saved with Certificate of completion switched on and no design chosen in Select certificate. If an older course is still in that state, anyone finishing it completes the course without a certificate. Nobody is given the certificate afterwards, even once a design is chosen.
Each time that happens, Audit logs gets a Certificate not issued entry naming the learner and the course, so you can see which course needs a design. To find them all, filter Record types to certificates and Actions to Not issued.
SCORM and xAPI courses give certificates the same way. A SCORM course arrives with Certificate of completion switched off, so switch it on if the course should give one.
For courses built in Learnient, whether a certificate is issued follows the version of the course the person took. If you switch Certificate of completion on or off while people are part-way through, they finish under the setting their version had.
Each attempt at a course gets its own certificate. When someone retakes a course they get a new certificate, and their earlier certificates are kept.
The certificate file is prepared just after they finish, so it can take a moment before it can be downloaded.
How the expiry date is worked out
Section titled “How the expiry date is worked out”The expiry date is the day someone finished plus the number of months in Certification valid for (months). It is fixed at the moment they finish.
Changing the number of months later does not move any expiry date already given for a course. People who have finished keep the date they had. Learning path certificates work differently, and are covered below.
When a certificate expires
Section titled “When a certificate expires”A certificate counts as expired as soon as its expiry date has passed. From then on:
- The button the learner uses to open the course becomes Retake course.
- If the course limits how many attempts someone can have and they have used them all, they cannot retake it. An attempt they left with Start again is one of those attempts.
- The course appears on the dashboard under Expired training from the day after it expired.
Expiry does not remove anyone’s progress or earlier result.
Renewing a certificate
Section titled “Renewing a certificate”To renew, the learner retakes the course. When they complete or pass it, they get a new certificate with a new expiry date, worked out the same way from the day they finish.
The same Retake course button appears when you publish a change to a course and decide that everyone who completed it has to do it again.
Reminders
Section titled “Reminders”Expiry reminders are emails to learners, switched on under Certification expiry reminders in Notifications. Reminders are only sent while this is switched on.
Reminders go out once a day, in the morning. Unless you change them, a learner is emailed on these days:
- 30, 14 and 7 days before their certificate expires
- on the day it expires
- 7 days after it expired
- then once a week, for 12 weeks after it expired
You can change the days under Before and After, and switch Then weekly off. Email frequency decides whether each course gets its own email or several are grouped into one.
Switch on Notify manager to send a summary to the manager of the position the training belongs to. With positions switched on, that is the lead of the position that job reports to.
Who is reminded also depends on these:
- Only someone’s latest attempt at a course counts. Once they have retaken it, reminders about their earlier certificate stop.
- A new certificate starts its reminders from the beginning, even if they were reminded about the old one.
- If the certificate from their latest attempt was withdrawn, they get no reminders for that course.
- When you first switch reminders on, nobody is emailed about a certificate that had already expired before that day.
- Courses taken as part of a learning path do not send their own expiry reminders.
Changing a learner’s status
Section titled “Changing a learner’s status”An administrator can change someone’s status on a course with Update learner status. What happens to their certificate depends on the status you choose.
| You choose | Their certificate |
|---|---|
| Mark as completed or Mark as passed | They get a certificate if the course has one, and an expiry date counted from that day using the course’s current Certification valid for (months) |
| Mark as failed or Mark as in progress | Their certificate is withdrawn and they no longer have an expiry date |
Skills that come from a course
Section titled “Skills that come from a course”A course can raise someone’s skill level when they finish it, using Auto-advance. If that course also gives a certificate that expires, the skill expires on the same day as the certificate. If the certificate is withdrawn, the skill lapses on the day it was withdrawn.
Learning paths
Section titled “Learning paths”A learning path has its own Award certificate on completion setting. A path certificate expires on the earliest of the path’s own validity and the expiry of every course the path requires, so it can run out before the path’s own months are up.
Changing which courses a path requires works the date out again for everyone who has already finished it, so a path certificate date can move after it was given.
When a path certificate expires, the learner sees Retake path.
What this means for your setup
Section titled “What this means for your setup”Fill in Certification valid for (months) to match how often the training must be repeated, and do it before people start finishing the course. Dates already given do not change when you edit it later.
Check that Certification expiry reminders is switched on if you want learners told before their certificate runs out.
If a course limits attempts, someone who has used them all cannot renew by retaking it. For training that expires every year, a limit on attempts eventually stops people renewing.