ClearCompany Learning: Cultivate Certification Plans

Certification Plans are essential to ensure learners not only complete their training but also demonstrate mastery of the content. Certifications validate skills, motivate learners, and align training with organizational goals. In this article, we’ll outline how to create an effective Certification Plan using Learning Objects to help ensure meaningful recognition of learning outcomes.

In this article:
Certification Plan Overview
Add Certification Plan
Assign Certification Plan

Certification Plan Overview

Certification plans can be used to train and evaluate users. Some common examples include:

• Compliance Certification Plan: To certify employees have completed mandatory training (e.g., safety, legal, or regulatory requirements).
• Product Knowledge Certification Plan: To ensure sales teams or customer service representatives are well-versed in a company’s products or services.
• Skill Development Certification Plan: To certify that learners have acquired new skills (e.g., technical, soft skills, or software expertise).

Add Certification Plan

Add Guide

1. From the Administration dashboard, navigate to Assignments then click Certification Plans.
2. Click +Add Certification Plan.
   
3. Fill out the Fields to build your assignment. Yellow fields are required.
   • Owner Group: Determine the Owner Group (usually the topmost group in your group structure).
   • Certification Plan Name: Give a name to your Certification Plan; this will be visible on the Front End.
   • Certification Plan Description: Add an optional description for your Certification Plan.
   • Display on Front End: This determines if the Certification Plan is displayed on Front End. If you select yes, there are additional details you can adjust:
     • Display Unreleased Step Details: If there are multiple steps included in the certification plan and you enable this option, they will be visible on the front end of the platform. If this is not enabled, the learner will only see the released step(s) on the front-end of the platform.
     • Certificate Template: This allows users to select a custom certificate template that will display on the front end when a learner has completed the certification plan.
     • Certification Plan Image: This is the image that appears at the top of the Certification Plan details page.
4. Click Save.
5. Navigate to the Objects tab.
6. In the right-hand column, filter by Object type and select the Objects you want to include. For each Object added, you can adjust Days Until Release and Days Until Due to create a staggered timeline. Click Add for them to be added to the Certification Plan.
   • Days Until Release: Allows an admin to determine how many days should pass before the next object in the certification plan should be released to the learner on the front end. (Put 0 or leave blank if the learner should receive the next object immediately upon completion of the previous object/step).
   • Days Until Due: These are the number of days a learner has to complete the object assigned before it becomes overdue.
7. Once your Certification Plan is built, you can Assign it via Assignments.

Assign by Certification Plan

Assign by Certification Plan

1. From the Administration dashboard, navigate to Assignments > Manage Assignments.
2. Click +Create Assignment.
3. Click Assign by Certification Plan.
4. Fill out the Fields to build your assignment. Yellow fields are required.
   • Batch Name: Internal way to identify the assignment batch. This is helpful because you can have multiple objects for a single assignment. We recommend determining a consistent naming convention for your Admin team. Not visible on the front end.
   • Start Date: When the Assignment will go live - you can schedule ahead of time.
   • Edit Email Reminders: This is where you build reminder emails. You can make edits to the email template and also CC Managers. When the reminder is sent, the reminder emails are configured to be sent X number of days after the initial assigned-on date.
     
     • Dynamic Date: you will choose the Days after the assigned date to determine when the reminders are sent.
     • Specific Date: you will choose a Specific Date for sending reminders.
     • You can add as many reminders as you would like; any user who has not completed the training will receive this email.
   • Send New Assigned Training Emails: You are able to send an email to Users once the Assignment is live. If you select yes, you will be able to edit later in the Assigning process.
   • Comments: This is optional; comments are used for Admins with Rights to access and edit assignments. These are not visible on the front end.
5. After filling these fields out, click Continue.
6. You are now able to assign users to the assignment using the new Navigation tabs. Add Users/Groups/Groupings by clicking the Action button. Users/Groups/Groupings that have been added will be listed in the right-hand column on their respective pages.
   • Select Users: You can assign individual Users.
   • Select Groups: You can assign Groups. 
   • Select Groupings: You can assign Groupings.
   • If an individual is added via multiple Groups/Groupings, they will not have duplicate assignments or receive duplicate emails.
7. Navigate to the Select Certification Plan tab and select all Certification Plans you want to add to the Assignment. Add them by clicking the Action button. Included plans will be listed in the right-hand column. To learn more about building a Certification Plan, check out this article.
8. Navigate to the Confirm tab. Here you will see the Selected Certification Plan, all Users (you will see if they were added via Users/Groups/Groupings), and the Selected Settings. You can return to edit any of them using the Edit Button in the top right corner of each column.
9. In the event you want an entire Group to be assigned with the exception of a User, you can manually deselect any Users who you should not be assigned.
10. Once you’ve confirmed your details, click Confirm Assignment.
11. If you opt to Send New Assigned Training Email, you will be prompted to verify the email. You can select the template in the top right-hand dropdown. You can also add CC recipients, edit your title, and edit your subject.
    
12. Once you’ve confirmed, click Save.