Required training is easy to offer and hard to prove. When a client, a regulator or an auditor asks, “we run a course on that” is not the answer. “These people have done it, on these dates, and these two are booked for next week” is.
The question that matters
Not “what training do we offer?” but “who, by name, has done what their job requires, and is it still valid?” Everything below is about answering that in a minute.
1. List what each role needs
Attach the requirements to the role, not to the person. Health and safety for site staff, data protection for anyone handling customer data, a licence or professional registration where the law or a professional body asks for one. When someone joins or moves into the role, they get the requirements automatically, and nobody has to remember.
2. Track dates, not courses
Every requirement has four states, and only four: not started, in progress, done and valid, or expired. Record when each was done and when it runs out. A certificate without an expiry date is a certificate nobody will renew.
3. Warn early
Send reminders 90, 60 and 30 days before something expires, to the person and their manager. Booking a course takes weeks. An expired licence can take someone off the work the same day.
4. Keep CPD against the cycle
Many professions ask for continuing professional development: a number of hours, points or credits in each cycle. Help people log it as they go, show them how far they are and how long they have left, and suggest what counts. The last week of the cycle is the wrong time to find out someone is twenty points short.
When someone changes role
A move or a promotion often brings new requirements: a manager needs training the team member did not, a site role needs a safety course an office role does not. If requirements sit on the role, the move brings them with it. Give people a fair window to complete them, and a clear date.
Keep the evidence
For each completed requirement, keep what proves it: the date, the course or exam, the score if there was one, and the certificate. Keep old records when something is renewed, so you can show what was valid on any past date.
Logging hours is not the whole point. The CIPD’s own CPD policy takes an “outputs-based approach”: the focus is the impact the learning had, and members are asked to record and reflect on what they learned. A short note on what changed after each course is worth more than a certificate on its own.
5. Make it worth doing
Short beats long. Use your own policies and real examples from your work, add a few questions at the end, and drop anything people already know. Training people finish is worth more than training that ticks a box.
Which training is legally required depends on your country and industry. Check what applies to you, then let the system do the remembering.