An assignment puts a course or a document in a trainee’s Training Centre for them to complete. QTRACA has several ways to create one, and they are not interchangeable: some set a due date and some do not, some notify the trainee, and only some check whether the trainee already has the training. This article sets them side by side so you can pick the right one, and explains exactly what each skips.
Where to find it: on a trainee from Training > Trainees (Add Course, Assign Learning Path), on a course from Training > Courses (the Trainees tab), and on a role from Training > Training Roles (the Compliance Status tab).
Concepts
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Assignment | One trainee’s record for one course or document. It is open until it is completed, and it holds the score, signature and due date. |
| Open | Assigned and not yet completed, including overdue. For a document, a failed quiz is still open because it can be retaken. |
| Due date | When the training should be done. Overdue emails and the My team dashboard work from it. An assignment with no due date is never overdue. |
| Excused | A supervisor has waived an assignment, for example for someone on leave. It is neither open nor completed. |
Quick start
For most training, set it up once on a training role and let QTRACA work out who is missing what:
- Go to Training > Training Roles and open the role, for example Production Operator.
- Open the Compliance Status tab.
- Tick the trainees marked Non-Compliant.
- Click Assign Missing Training.
Each trainee gets only the required training they are missing, and is notified. Courses are due in 14 days; documents use their own training due days.
Ways to assign, compared
| Way | Due date | Skips | Trainee notified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assign Missing Training (role) and the new-role prompt (trainee) | 14 days for a course; the document’s training due days (default 14) for a document | Recommended items, completed, already open, excused, inactive courses, unpublished documents, inactive trainees | Yes |
| Assign on Training > My team | You choose; required, and not in the past | Anyone who already has the course open | For document-linked courses |
| Assign Trainees on a course’s Trainees tab | Optional; you choose | Anyone who already has the course assigned and not yet completed | No |
| Add Course on the trainee screen | Optional; you choose | Refused if the trainee already has the course assigned and not yet completed | No |
| Assign Learning Path | None for a course step; the document’s training due days for a document step | Steps the trainee already has; each later step waits until the trainee starts it | No |
| Renewal (automatic or Bulk Renewal) | Today plus the course’s grace period, or the date you choose | Already open, inactive trainees, never completed. The automatic renewal also skips excused trainees; Bulk Renewal lists them unticked | Yes (optional on Bulk Renewal) |
Supervisors assigning to their own team are covered in Assigning training to your team, and renewals in Processing bulk training renewals.
From a training role
This is the safest way to assign, because it compares what the role requires with what each trainee has already done. There are two entry points:
- Compliance Status > Assign Missing Training on the role, for the trainees you tick. It runs as soon as you click, with no confirmation step. A message then says what was assigned and what was not, for example “Assigned 2 courses and 1 document to 2 trainees. Not assigned: 1 already assigned.”
- The Missing Required Training prompt on the trainee, when you save a new role on them. You untick anything you do not want, then click Assign Training Now. See Managing trainees.
Both follow the same rules:
| The trainee… | Result |
|---|---|
| completed it within the role’s frequency | Skipped. Nothing to do. |
| completed it longer ago than the frequency allows | Assigned again. This is what “(renewal due)” on the Compliance Status tab means. |
| already has it open | Skipped as already assigned. No duplicate is created. |
| was excused from it by a supervisor, and has never completed it | Skipped as excused by a supervisor. The excusal stands until someone assigns the course by another route. |
| — and the course is not Active (still Created, or Completed) | Skipped as course not active. |
| — and the document was never published, or is archived | Skipped as document not published. |
| is inactive | Skipped as trainee inactive. |
Recommended requirements are never assigned this way. They stay a choice for you to make course by course. The role rules are explained in full in Setting up training roles and compliance.
From a course
Open the course from Training > Courses, go to its Trainees tab and click New Trainee. The Assign Trainees window lets you pick several trainees at once.
- Search for and select trainees in Select Trainees to Assign.
- Optionally set a Due Date. Without one, the course is never overdue.
- Click Assign N Trainee(s). When the server has answered for everyone, a message says how many were assigned, and how many were not.
“Trainees who already have this course assigned and not yet completed are not assigned again”: each one is refused with a message naming them, rather than given a second copy. Someone who has completed the course can be assigned it again, as a retrain. This window sends no notification, so tell the trainees yourself.
From the trainee screen
Add Course on the trainee screen assigns one course to that trainee.
- Pick the course from Course. It lists “Active courses in the trainee’s language, and courses with no language set”; a trainee with no language sees every active course.
- Optionally set a Due Date: “Optional. Without a due date the course is never overdue.”
- Click Add. The window stays open until the server answers, then closes with “Course assigned.”
If the trainee already has the course assigned and not yet completed, the course is not added again. The window stays open and an error explains, for example “Noah Patel already has this course assigned and not yet completed.” No notification is sent to the trainee.
A learning path
Assign Learning Path on the trainee screen gives the trainee a whole sequence, such as New Starter Induction, one step at a time.
- Only the first step that can be worked on is assigned straight away. If the trainee already has that course or document, their existing record is used rather than a new one.
- Later steps unlock in order and are assigned when the trainee starts them in the Training Centre. Optional steps never hold anything up.
- A course step gets no due date. A document step is due after the document’s training due days (14 if it has none).
- A path can be assigned to a trainee only once. Trying again shows “Failed to assign learning path. Please try again.”
See Building learning paths for how steps and locks work.
Documents
Read-and-acknowledge documents and document quizzes reach trainees in these ways:
- A training role that requires the document, through Assign Missing Training or the new-role prompt.
- Auto-assign on publish, which gives the document to trainees in roles that require it when a version is published. A major revision can also retrain everyone who completed the previous version.
- A learning path with the document as a step.
- Assign Training on the document’s Training Records tab, shown once the document requires training and is published.
Document settings are covered in Configuring training requirements for documents.
Availability and permissions
- Assigning training is part of the Training module. Document training also needs Document Management.
- Admin and Training Coordinator users can assign from courses, trainees and training roles.
- Supervisors assign to their own team from Training > My team.
Things to know
- A course is only ever open once per trainee. Every route refuses or skips a second open assignment of the same course; a completed course can be assigned again.
- No due date means never overdue. Add Course and Assign Trainees leave the due date optional; training without one never shows as overdue and never triggers overdue emails.
- Add Course and Assign Trainees do not notify the trainee. Role assignment, renewals and document assignment do.
- Holding a role assigns nothing by itself. Assignment happens when you confirm the prompt or click Assign Missing Training.
- Excused training stays excused until someone deliberately assigns it again. Automatic renewal never overrides an excusal, and neither does role assignment for training the trainee has never completed.
- Deleting an assignment from the trainee’s Courses tab removes the record, including any score and signature.