Recertification FAQ

This page describes which guidelines should be considered for recertification. By following these recommended practices, the impact of recertification can be maximised, ensuring that employees comply with

The following best practices can be applied based on the different scenarios.

Excluding users from the Recertification Process

An employee in the target group may not have to complete this recertification for certain reasons. Removing the user from the target group is not an option because the target group may also be used for other purposes. To remove a user from the recertification, use the ‘Exceptions’ tab in the participant administration of the course templates.

Under the ‘Exceptions’ tab, users who should not be included in the recertification process can be explicitly added. Conversely, users who are not part of the target

Including Users who already completed a Course without Recertification

Users who completed a course in the past, when no recertification was configured and no automatic enrolment at course level was available, are handled as new users starting the recertification process if they later become part of a target group with rec

Handling for Participants who have the status “enrolled” or “in progress” after Due Date

Not all users complete a course by the given due date. Formerly, only users who had successfully completed a course were considered for the next certification period. To allow learners with the status “enrolled” or “in progress” to continue with a subsequent course, the setting “Change status after a defined number of days” in the section “recertification settings” can be used.

If this setting is selected, the text field for specifying the number of days after which the status change is to take place after the due date is activated. A 3-digit number can be entered to define the number of days after the due date when the status change is executed.

Users can remain overdue for the defined number of additional days before the status changes, as defined. Entering “0” allows no additional days, and the status changes directly on the day after the due date.

It is possible to select a status to which the user status will change. The following options are available:

• Cancelled

• Passed

• Failed

The status change is executed by the ParticipantAutomaticStatusChangeJob which must be scheduled daily.

(de.imc.clix.comp.edu.type.participant.ParticipantAutomaticStatusChange).

In combination with the setting “Re-enrol canceled and failed users”, these learners are considered for the recertification cycle. If this setting is not active, those learners are not part of future cycles.

Handling for Participants who failed the Course or have the status cancelled (also multiple cancellations)

The option “Re-enrol cancelled and failed users” allows failed and cancelled participants to be enrolled in the next available course and to continue the recertification process. Participants who are cancelled multiple times are also considered. This option can only be selected if “recertification” is selected.

If “re-enrol cancelled and failed users” is disabled, the users with the status failed or cancelled will not be considered for further enrolments and are kept with the same status (Personal Syllabus, Failed) and (Personal syllabus, Cancelled) at the course template and course level with the same due date.

If “re-enrol cancelled and failed users” is enabled and the job runs

• if a course is not available, the users stay at (Personal Syllabus, Failed) and (Personal syllabus, Cancelled) at the course template and course level with the same due date.

• if a course is available, the user is directly enrolled with status enrolled/enrolled at the course template/course level with due date calculated as follows:

  • If user has never completed a course, the initial due date settings apply.

  • If user has completed a course, the due date is calculated as later of (enrolment date + days to finish) and due date of the last course.

The behaviour remains the same irrespective of whether the user has re-joined the group.

Example:

The user completed the course at the end of 2024, establishing certification validity for 12 months and expiring at the end of December 2025. The user was enrolled for recertification in February 2025, aiming to complete a new course before December 2025. However, the user failed the course in June 2025. Since certification is based on the most recent successful completion and the validity duration is one year from December 2024, failing an attempt at recertification before that expiration does not invalidate the current certification. The original certificate remains valid until December 2025 unless a specific policy states that failing an early attempt immediately revokes certification, which is rarely the case. Therefore, the user’s certification continues until the original expiration date, and the user remains certified until December 2025 despite failing the recertification course in June 2025.

Handling of Re-Joiners

Users who are supposed to complete recertification training might drop out of their recertification training assignment for different reasons, such as changing jobs or positions, parental leave, or long-term illness.

The system handles these cases differently depending on the status the user had when leaving the group. The following distinctions apply:

• whether or not a user who drops from the group had completed a course of the course template before dropping, and

• whether or not the setting “Automatic cancellation” has been activated

Re-joiners who did not complete at least one Course of the Course Template

Users who have not completed a course of the template are handled depending on their user status and on whether automatic cancellation is active for their group.

In any case, the user is removed from the personal syllabus tab of the course template when no longer being a member of the group.

If the “automatic cancellation” checkbox is active, the user is cancelled from a running course. When re-joining the group, such users are handled like initially assigned group members. This means that all settings in the “Enrolment settings” section of the assignment dialogue are applied, the user is directly enrolled, and a newly calculated initial due date is assigned. The setting “Consider newly added members” has no effect on re-joiners.

If the checkbox has not been activated, the user remains enrolled on a running course. After its completion, the next due date for the second course is calculated based on the defined recertification settings, and the enrolment is conducted.

Re-joiners who have already completed at least one Course of the Course Template

Users who completed a course of the template are still listed on the personal syllabus tab of the course template, but recertification and automatic enrolment are set to “no” for them. A next due date will not be displayed; however, the system stores it permanently to bring it back when the user rejoins the group.

If the automatic cancellation checkbox is active for the group, users are cancelled from any current course in which they might be enrolled when they leave the group; the enrolment status is not affected.

When those users re-join the group, the personal syllabus status is updated based on the restored next due date from before they left. Further actions depend on whether the enrolment calculated by next due date - days to finish - buffer day is <= today.

If not, the user status remains successfully completed and the next due date is displayed again. Otherwise, the status “Participant status (template)” changes to “Personal syllabus”. In the latter case, the system subsequently checks whether a course is available. If one is available, the user is directly enrolled on that course, taking the later-date-applies approach into consideration, as illustrated below.

Examples for the “Later date applies” approach for re-joiners (Based on conclusion)

The system compares, as for any other enrolment conducted in the context of recertification, the set next due date with the date calculated by adding the days to finish to the enrolment date and applies the later date of both as the due date for the course in which the user is enrolled.

As with any other enrolment conducted in the context of recertification, the system compares the set next due date with the date calculated by adding the days to finish to the enrolment date and applies the later date as the due date for the course in which the user is enrolled.

In the illustrated examples, the following applies to both deadline types, “based on conclusion” and “DD/MM”:

• Re-joiners who get a member of the group again on a date which is less than the defined days-to-finish away from the restored next due date get a due date calculated by enrolment date plus days to finish, as this due date is later than the restored next due date. (Re-joiner A)

• Re-joiners who get a member of the group again on a date which is after the restored next due date get a due date calculated by enrolment date plus days to finish, as this means the next due date is in the past. (Re-joiner B)

• Re-joiners who get a member of the group again on a date which is more than the defined days-to-finish away from the restored next due date get the next due date applied as their due date as this date is always later than the date calculated by the enrolment date plus days to finish for such cases. There, it makes no difference whether the user rejoins in the time range where buffer days are applied (Re-joiner C) or even before (Re-joiner D)

Recertification in Combination with Skill Usage

A popular use case is the inclusion of skills in the recertification process. Skills, or the lack thereof, are used as criteria for forming target groups.

Skills can generally be used as usual, meaning that they can be assigned to a course template or course, have achievement triggers with course completion, and have a skill expiry date. However, this skill achievement should not be used for inclusion in or exclusion from target-group building for recertification purposes. Otherwise, users might unintentionally drop out of the target group after skill achievement and rejoin it only on the skill expiry date. This would cause unintended handling as a re-joiner and might disrupt the otherwise regular recertification process. This is especially the case when the recertification interval equals the skill expiry period. In such cases, users would rejoin the recertification process only on the same day as the next due date. Therefore, their due date would regularly be calculated by adding the days to finish to the enrolment date after the planned next due date.

Conclusion:
There is no need to remove users from target groups based on skill validity. Users are only taken into account when their enrolment becomes due, which is calculated as Next Due Date – Days to Complete – Buffer Days. While completing a course can still grant a skill, removing the user from the target group is not required.

The skill has a defined expiration date, for example, 365 days. This means that the learner is assigned the skill with an expiration date of 365 days upon completion of the initial course.
The target group is defined so that the participant is removed from the target group once the skill has been achieved. If the skill has expired, the participant is reassigned to the target group.
With a recertification interval of 12 months, this is the same date as the next due date.

Example

Recertification setup

• Recertification interval: 12 months

• Buffer days: 7

• Days to finish: 30 Days

Timeline example

1. Course completion: The learner completes Course 1 on December 31, 2024.

2. Next due date: The system sets the next due date to December 31, 2025 (12 months later).

3. Skill validity: The acquired skill is valid until December 31, 2025.

   • As long as the skill is valid, the learner is removed from the target group.

   • Once the skill expires (December 31, 2025), the learner is re-added to the target group.

Booking / assignment behaviour

• Normally, with a 7-day buffer, the system would allow a booking as early as November 24, 2025.

• Problem: On November 24, 2025, the learner is not in the target group, because their skill has not yet expired.

• Result: The learner cannot be booked in advance.

Outcome

• On December 31, 2025 (the expiration date):

  • The learner is reassigned to the target group.

  • The assignment and due date occur on the same day.

  • From this point, the learner must complete the recertification course by the due date (December 31, 2025).

In short: Because the learner drops out of the target group while the skill is valid, pre-booking is not possible. Reassignment takes place only on the exact due date, meaning that assignment and due date coincide.

How to steer fixed enrolment dates for 2nd and following courses

Customer scenarios might require enrolment dates for second and subsequent courses to remain at a defined interval after regular course completion before enrolment for the next course iteration is carried out.

Basic steering mechanism

The following slide illustrates the basic steering mechanism, which combines different configuration options to set up such a scenario.

General approach for steering the start-to-end process for recurring enrolment on the same dates

The general business needs of the illustrated scenario are as follows:

• User are supposed to complete the initial course and be enrolled on the target group assignment to the course template in their first course.

• When the first course is completed:

  • The company wants to ensure that learners afterwards can not enrol to a following course before a defined waiting period is passed. This waiting period is a time range in which the user has completed a former course but can not yet enrol in a following course. It’s conception-wide to be considered however, it’s not a configuration parameter in imc Learning Suite.

  • The company wants to ensure that users get automatically enrolled in the following course on a defined date after the waiting period. e.g each 1.2. for any following course.

To serve this business need, the following system processes and parameters are applied:

1. The learner is assigned to a course for automatic enrolment on the course template level and is directly enrolled on the day of assignment if a course is available.

2. With completion of the first course, the system sets the learner to successfully completed on course template level and calculates the next due date for the following course.

3. With every job run, the system checks whether enrolment is due by “Next due date - days to finish- buffers <= today”

4. If enrolment is due, the system checks whether a course for enrolment is available. If that is the case enrolment is carried out with the same job run; no enrolment takes place.

5. When a company only has one recertification interval, such a scenario can work without the option for steering the enrolment execution via the availability of the following course with automatic course creation.

For system-usage scenarios with different intervals or different targeted recurring enrolment dates, automatic course creation is mandatory to achieve recurring enrolments for the different scenarios. This is outlined in the following section.

System-wide steering mechanism

The system-wide configured buffer days affect not only individual course templates for recertification but all configured course templates, even if the recertification interval is different; therefore, the recurring planned re-enrolment dates may differ by course template.

The following slide illustrates examples of recertification training with different recertification intervals in one system.

Challenges in this scenario:

Automatic course creation intervals can only be defined in days, not months. This necessitates manual adaptation of automatic course creation for leap years. In leap years, the number of days must be adjusted by one day to land on the same recurring date as in the preceding year.

Identifying the correct moment of automatic course creation

A common business need is for courses to be available for enrolment when enrolment is due. Manual course creation is problematic because it is time-consuming and error-prone.

Instead, it is highly recommended to use automatic course creation. Automatic course creation increases efficiency and minimises administrative work, but identifying when to create courses is challenging.

Steering mechanisms

Courses should be automatically created at least before the enrolment is due (Next due date - days to finish-buffer days)

It is best to use automatic course creation with “Deadline type” as “Always valid on DD/MM” and “Automatic course enrolment” active so that a fixed date can be established by which a course must be automatically created for all users of a target group. As soon as enrolment is due, the user is enrolled in the latest available course.

Initial due date based on DD/MM should be the same as the deadline chosen for recertification so that from the beginning a 12-month cycle is achieved.

The course creation interval must be set based on the target group recertification settings. If target groups have different settings, the group with the smallest interval must be used as the basis for calculation.

The planning status change interval should be 0 if courses are required to be released for enrolment immediately after creation. Otherwise, it should be defined to control when the course planning status is automatically changed from Locked to Released. This delay enables administrators to make required changes and control when a course becomes available for enrolment if enrolment is already due because of a high number of buffer days.

Example (Deadline type based on conclusion)

The course creation interval should be calculated as follows:

Course creation interval = Recertification interval - days to finish - buffer days

Let us assume the following target group settings.

Buffer days = 0d

Days to finish = 15d

Recertification interval = 180d

Course creation interval = 180d - 15d - 0d = 165 d

Assume that five learners need to be included in the recertification process.

The following tables show the process for these learners for each of the seven automatically created courses.

• Learner 1 completes the courses as soon as he is enrolled

• Learner 2 completes the courses but either on or just before the due date

• Learner 3 completes the courses but 5 days overdue

• Learner 4 does not complete any of the course and is out of the recertification process.

• Learner 5 completes the courses but is always overdue by a huge no. of days (e.g. 330 days). It is important to note that though the Learner 5 is in the recertification process but he is not certified every 6 months as he completes the courses overdue by a huge no. of days which are longer than the recertification interval itself.

To bring Learners 4 and 5 into the recertification process, different approaches can be used.

The following tables show that, even though the five learners complete the courses at different times, choosing a course creation interval of 165 d (recertification interval - days to finish - buffer days) ensures that a course is automatically created before enrolment is due (next due date - days to finish - buffer days) and is always available for enrolment when due.

Recertification Training with a Deadline Type based on Conclusion

If each individual needs to be personally certified and the whole organisation does not need to be certified at a certain time of year, for example for a first-aid course, the deadline type based on conclusion should be used.

The advantage is individual flexibility.

The disadvantage is:

• If a person is enrolled too early because the days to finish and buffer days are higher, there is no sufficient gap for the learner between two trainings, because as soon as he finishes the first training, he gets enrolled on the next training.

• One cannot foresee when to offer the training. Steering automatic course creation is not plannable as there is no common enrolment date for users.

Steering mechanisms

• Admin needs to make sure that a course is always available either via automatic course creation or by creating the course manually.

• If different target groups have different recertification intervals, courses should be automatically created as per the shortest recertification interval.

• The ParticipantAutomaticRegistrationJob should be scheduled daily to consider enrolments for all users. Because the enrolment date can vary significantly, especially if the due date is based on the conclusion.

Recertification Training with Deadline type based on a concrete Date in the Year

For a certain group of learners, there may be a business need for employees to be certified by a certain time. Everyone should have a common defined deadline, for example for refresher training for machines to be operated or for training with seasonal dependencies.

Steering Mechanisms

Deadline type = Always valid on DD/MM

• Make sure that the employees do the refresher training till a specific time in the year.

• Also, for all participants, the next due date and the enrolment date are the ,same and hence automatic course creation can be used to make sure that a course is always available when the enrolment is due.

• The initial due date based on DD/MM should be the same as the deadline chosen for recertification so that from the beginning, a 12-month cycle is achieved.

Recertification based on Self-enrolment

For the business case in which a learner needs to attend face-to-face training and select a suitable date and location, self-enrolment is an option but is not recommended. If self-enrolment is chosen, it is very difficult to ensure that the learner self-enrols on the course when enrolment is due, and the learner might become overdue. It is also difficult to use automatic course creation in such cases, as the minimum difference between the creation of two courses is 28 days while the requirement might be to provide courses with a shorter gap.

Instead, activating the setting “Automatic course enrolment” is recommended to ensure that participants are automatically enrolled in a course when “Next due date - days to finish - buffer days” has been reached and a course is available.

Steering-mechanisms

• Self-enrolment

• Manual creation of courses

Direct Enrolment of the Learner

If there is a business need for a learner to be enrolled immediately when returning to the target group while outside the recertification cycle, “Consider newly added group members” should be activated.

Steering mechanisms

Activating “Consider newly added group members” is recommended so that users in the groups or job profile are regularly checked and considered for the recertification process. If deactivated, only users present at the time of group or job profile assignment are considered, and later updates are not included.

Handling of overdue Users

Activating the setting “Automatic status change after due date” is recommended so that overdue users who are still in progress or enrolled are cancelled, passed, or failed and considered for further enrolment.

In combination with the setting “Re-enrol, cancelled and failed users to the next recertification course”, cancelled and failed users can be brought back into the recertification cycle.

Handling of Users who were enrolled manually to a Course

Users who are manually enrolled in a course are handled in the same manner as users who are automatically enrolled. No differentiation is made.

For these users, as soon as the course is completed, the next due date is calculated and enrolment is conducted according to the enrolment date.

Using existing Course Templates for Recertification

Note that templates previously used for courses without recertification could possibly be used for a later target-group assignment for recertification, but doing so is not recommended. If this is done, completed courses with or without a due date are not considered part of a valid certification period. Therefore, users who completed the course before being assigned to the target group are considered initial target-group members, and initial due date settings apply.

Avoiding side-effects

Note that the setting “Allow learners to remove pre-booking from course templates” can interfere with the recertification process because it allows learners to remove prebooking for course templates. The recertification process is highly dependent on the personal syllabus status: as soon as enrolment is due, the user is automatically enrolled in the latest available course.

For this reason, activating this setting for the Learning Area is not recommended.

Days to Finish  versus Buffer Days

The use of a high number of days to complete the training and its semantic meaning.

The use of a high number of Days to finish the course, i.e., their semantic meaning. The number of Days to finish the course should be as short as the minimum time a learner needs to complete the training, and not in the sense of “I give the learner as much time as possible to plan and complete the training in the calendar.” The background to this is the handling of re-joiners who may already be in a recertification gap and therefore need to be re-certified as quickly as possible. A high number of Days to finish contradicts this. The buffer days, on the other hand, serve precisely the purpose of extending the availability of a course so that the learner has more flexibility to schedule the course. However, buffer days can be defined per rule set or at template level.

This process is explained using the following examples.

Examples:

Below are examples of how the days to finish can be entered for different intervals to influence the enrolment date.

Days to finish: 1825 for a Recertification interval of 60 months

Days to finish: 730 for a Recertification interval of 24 months

Days to finish: 365 for a Recertification interval of 12 months

Days to finish: 182 for a Recertification interval of 6 months

Instead of setting the days to finish so high, 30 days can be set, and booking can be controlled via the buffer days and automatic course creation.

Global Functions and Related Topics

Course-template Participation Management

Recertification Configuration

Recertification - Initial Due Date Calculation

Recertification - Next Due Date Calculation

Recertification - Next Enrolment Date