A certification contains one or more learning paths, each defining a set of course requirements. Paths allow organisations to configure how learners achieve certification for the first time and how they renew their certification in future cycles. A recertification path defines the learning required when a certification expires, while additional paths can support more complex certification models.
Certifications retain a full history of certification attempts, supporting auditability and long-term tracking.
Certifications provide a structured learning pathway with a defined validity period. Learners complete the required learning to become certified, and when the certification expires they must complete further learning to remain certified. Certifications are therefore suited to learning that must be repeated on a predictable cycle, such as compliance training, health and safety requirements, licence renewals and ongoing professional development.
How do certifications work?
Certifications are built from course sets, which define the courses required and the rules for completing them. Paths combine these course sets to describe the learning a user must complete at each stage of the certification cycle.
When a learner becomes certified, the certification remains valid for a defined period. When the learner reaches the recertification period before the certification expires, the learner is placed into the appropriate course path, which resets activity completion while retaining historical records of previous completions.
Learners remain enrolled in courses once they access them, including across recertification cycles. Optional courses behave according to the structure of the path in which the learner is placed.
Paths give organisations greater flexibility in structuring certification cycles, allowing the recertification requirements to differ from the initial certification requirements.
When the window opens, data and activity completion for all recertification pathway courses will be reset, including courses and activities completed by RPL (record of prior learning).
Key characteristics
Certifications provide:
Structured learning paths defined using multiple course sets
Defined validity periods that control expiry and renewal
Multiple paths, including initial certification and one or more recertification paths
Support for multi-year recertification sequences
Activity reset behaviour, ensuring learners complete updated requirements
Historical certification records for auditing and reporting
Exception reporting, highlighting overdue or blocked users
Consistent assignment behaviour, with users progressing through paths as required
These features make certifications suitable for any learning that must be demonstrated periodically or maintained to a defined standard.
Multi-year recertification
Certifications can support multi-year recertification sequences, allowing learning requirements to vary over several renewal cycles. This is useful where:
Some years require full retraining
Other years require shorter update or refresher content
Regulations specify staggered renewal patterns
Different audiences require distinct renewal sequences
A multi-year sequence may define, for example, a full course set in year one, an update course in year two and three, and a return to the full requirement in year four. Paths make it possible to express these long-term renewal patterns without duplicating courses or manually managing enrolments.
Assignment due dates are recorded when you press the Save changes button but are not applied until the user assignments are updated. If you see a message indicating that user assignments have been deferred then any user due date changes will not yet be applied and will be processed when the assignments_deferred_task scheduled task is run.
Sometimes accidents happen and a completion date is set incorrectly, or a user's due date needs changing for whatever reason. If changes are required then they can be done using the certification completion editor.
Reassignments
It is not uncommon that users may be unassigned from a certification, then reassigned. For example, a user could be a member of an audience assigned to a certification, then no longer meet the audience membership criteria, and will therefore be removed from the audience and unassigned from the certification. The user may then be reassigned to the certification via the same (or different) assignment method.
When a user is reassigned to a certification they will be returned to their previous status. The system locates the latest unassigned certification completion history record and restores the user to their previous state. Any events that need to occur (such as the window opening for recertification) will take place when the relevant cron task runs.
A user who is unassigned and reassigned to a certification will be placed back onto the certification path they were previously on. If the users certification has expired when they are reassigned, the user will be assigned to the certification based on the reinstatement setting for that certification. Depending on their current course completion(s), their status may be reaggregated when the relevant cron task runs.
When certifications are used
Certifications are commonly used where learning must be refreshed or revalidated, including:
Workplace compliance and regulatory training
Health and safety updates
Data protection and information security
Licences and accreditation renewals
Clinical or industry-specific renewal cycles
Structured long-term professional development programmes requiring periodic updates
Certifications ensure that learners complete the most current requirements, while managers and administrators retain visibility of certification status across cycles.
Changing or removing courses in an active certification
If the initial certification path is changed for an active certification, this will not remove the certification completions for users who have already completed it.
Once a user is marked as certified, any changes you make to the path will not affect their certification and it will remain as Complete. Once the user reaches the recertification window open point, the completion will be archived and the user will need to complete the recertification path.
Only newly assigned users or users with a status of In progress will be affected by these changes and these users will need to complete the certification based on the changes to the content.
Next steps
The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to using Programs and certifications in Totara Learn. Here you can learn more on how to use programs and certifications, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.
Join the Totara Community for more resources to help you get the most out of Totara.
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