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Why you should keep training records, and how

By the EMPOBase team · · 4 min read

Short answer

Keep training records because donors, auditors and your own managers need proof that staff have the skills their roles require, and because some training expires. For each course, record the person, the topic, the date, the provider, the evidence and any expiry date. Keep them in one place, review gaps against role needs, and renew what lapses.

Key points

  • Training records prove that staff have the skills the role and the grant require.
  • Record person, topic, date, provider, evidence and expiry for every course.
  • Track expiry, since safeguarding, first aid and security training often lapse.
  • Compare records with role needs each year to find gaps.

Why do training records matter?

Training happens in many places: a workshop, an online course, a donor event, a field briefing. If nobody writes it down, it disappears when the person leaves or when memory fades. Then a donor asks who has completed safeguarding training, and the answer is a week of searching.

Records give you four things:

  • Proof for donors and auditors that staff were trained.
  • Planning, because you can see who needs what.
  • Safety, because expired training, such as first aid, is easy to miss.
  • Fairness, because development opportunities can be seen and shared.

What should you record?

For each course, keep:

  1. The person’s name and role.
  2. The topic and the provider.
  3. The date, and the length of the course.
  4. The result, such as attended or passed.
  5. The evidence, such as a certificate or attendance sheet.
  6. The expiry or renewal date, if the training lapses.
  7. Who paid, and which project, if the cost was charged to a grant.

Keep the evidence with the record, not in a personal inbox.

Which training usually expires?

Some training is useful once. Some must be renewed. Check your own policy and donor terms, but these often need a cycle:

TrainingWhy it lapses
Safeguarding and PSEAStaff forget; donors expect refreshers
First aidSkills fade; certificates have an end date
Security and travel briefingsContexts change
Data protectionRules and risks change
Driving or equipment licencesLicences have an expiry

Give each item a renewal interval, and flag anyone who is due within the next 60 or 90 days.

How do you find gaps?

Once a year, compare what each role needs with what each person has done. Use a short list of required training per role, and a skills picture such as the one in our article on building a competency framework. Then sort the gaps:

  1. Must fix now: safety or donor-required items.
  2. Fix this year: skills the role needs.
  3. Nice to have: growth items.

Put the first two groups into the training plan and the budget. A training budget line that is named in the grant is easier to defend than one found later.

How do you keep the records current?

Make it easy. Ask staff to add a course when they finish it, with the certificate. Let managers confirm. Run a short check every quarter: list who has an expiry in the next 90 days, and send reminders. Do not keep records in several files; one place avoids two versions of the truth.

Staff records are personal data. Limit who can see them, and follow your data protection rules and national law.

What do donors and auditors ask for?

Donor agreements often state that staff must have certain skills, or that staff must complete specific training, such as safeguarding. An auditor may ask for the list of people who worked on a grant and proof of their training. Be ready to show:

  1. The list of staff on the grant.
  2. The training each person completed, with dates.
  3. The evidence for each item.
  4. A record of what you did when a certificate expired.

If the grant paid for training, show the cost against the right budget line. Our safeguarding article covers one topic where donors almost always ask for proof.

Training also records fairness. Look once a year at who received training: if only headquarters staff or only international staff attend courses, you have a gap to close. Offer access to field and national staff, and record the decision when you cannot.

A simple quarterly check

Once a quarter, run four steps. First, list every training item that expires in the next 90 days. Second, send each person and their manager a reminder with the date. Third, book the course or confirm the plan for those items. Fourth, record any item that has lapsed, with a date by which it will be fixed. Small, regular checks stop lapses from piling up before an audit. Also check for people who joined this quarter, since they are the most likely to be missing from the list. Ask them to add any training they brought from a past job, and keep the certificates, so you do not repeat what they already hold.

Where EMPOBase fits

EMPOBase has Learning & Training in the People & HR module, where training records are kept against the staff member. Signed PSEA and code-of-conduct declarations are held as a renewable record with expiry, and a banner appears at sign-in when one is due. EMPOBase does not deliver the courses themselves, so you still run or buy the training. Read more on the platform page or in the documentation.

Questions people ask

Do we need to keep records of informal training?

Record it when it matters for the role or a donor requirement, such as a mentoring period or a workshop. Keep a short note and, if you have it, a certificate or attendance list.

Who should own the training records?

HR owns the system and the format. Line managers confirm that people attended, and staff can see and add their own records.

How long should we keep training records?

Keep them for the period your law and your donor agreements require. Both differ by country, so check them and state the period in your policy.