Certifications
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      Create a Certification

      Table of Contents

      Create a Certification

      Do not create a certification without permission from the Learn@HubSpot team. Email learn@hubspot.com if and when you'd like to create a certification.

      Certifications are a tool used to configure a planned and ordered series of courses (or sets of courses). The unique feature of Certifications is that it will prompt a learner to repeat the designated courses after a certain period of time. You can use Certifications by determining the courses a learner needs to complete, as well as their completion dates, time frames, and order and flow.

      Certifications are useful for encouraging learners to keep skills up to date, or in times when a learner may need to demonstrate compliance with often-changing policies, practices, or regulations. An example of Certification usage is the Annual Legal Compliance Course.

      Learners can be enrolled in a certification individually or via an Audience list, with different completion criteria set for each group if required.

      Create a Certification

      1. In Learn@HubSpot, click the settings gear icon settings gear icon in the top right corner, then click Certifications.

      2. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

      3. Click Add a new certification.

      4. Under Details tab, fill in the following information:

      • Under Certification details
        • Select the relevant category for your certification (this is typically by department).
        • Set the Full Name and Short name (these should match).
        • Enter a description (please include the validity period of your certification) under Summary.
      create a certification_1



        • Under Audience-based visibility, edit Visibility if you need to restrict some HubSpotters from accessing your program. Otherwise, keep to the default setting of All users.
        • Skip everything else and click Save Changes.

      Add Courses to a Certification

      1. Within your certification settings, click the Content tab.
      2. Under Original certification path (this setting is for learners going through the certification for the very first time), select Set of courses from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add.
      3. In the pop-up box, browse through the course categories or Search for a specific course.
      4. Click on the name of each course to be added. The selected course(s) will appear in the Items to add area on the right.
      5. Click Ok to complete the course selection or Cancel to exit.
      create a program_screenshot 2
      6. Update the relevant Course set settings (details outlined here). Usually the default settings are correct.
      7. Repeat steps 2-6 to add another Set of courses and update the relevant settings if needed.
      8. Under Recertification path (what the learner will take when the certification expires),
      • select the checkbox Use the existing certification content if the learner has to redo the all of the courses in the Original certification path during recertification, or
      create a certification_screenshot 2

      Please note: selecting the checkbox Use the existing certification content  copies everything from the Original certification path into the Recertification path.  This copying only happens once; afterwards, if a change is made to one path, the same change will need to be made manually to the other path in order to keep them the same.

      • repeat steps 2-6 to add a set of courses for the recertification path.

      9. Click Save changes.

      Set Recertification Details

      The Certification section defines how long a certification is considered active and when a learner must complete their recertification.

      1. Within your certification settings, click the Certification tab.

      2. Select an option for Recertification date.

      Please see definitions for the different types of recertification dates:

      Use certification completion date:

      When a user completes one of the certification paths (original or recertification), the expiry date will be calculated based on the date that the completion occurred.  The active period is added to the completion date.

      For example, if Learner A completes the certification on 11/2/2024 and the active period (validity) is one year, the certificate will expire on 11/2/2025.

      Use certification expiry date:

      Calculate the new expiry date based on the previous one. The first time this is calculated, it adds the active period to the assignment due date if there is one, otherwise it uses the date the certification was completed.

      If the user is overdue or expired, it adds the active period to the date the primary certification was just completed (as if the user was newly assigned), so that certifications are active for a minimum of the active period.

      For example, if Certification A has an assignment due on 11/2/2024, the first expiry date will be 11/2/2025 (assuming the active period is one year). If there's no assignment due date, the expiry will be based on Learner A's completion date, so if Learner A took the recertification on 12/1/2024 instead of  11/2/2024, the next expiry date will still be based on the primary certification date making it 11/2/2025. 

      Use fixed expiry date:

      This option causes the expiry time to be calculated based on the specified assignment due date (if available, otherwise the first completion date), and subsequent completion expiry dates will be calculated using that same base date, regardless of whether they are late or early.

      The active period is repeatedly added to the base date until the first future date is discovered. The Minimum active period is available only with this setting, and must be at least as big as the Recertification Window (see the Minimum active period help for more information)

      3. Input a value for Active Period (how long a certification, once complete, will be active or valid before it expires).

      Please note: Minimum active period is only available if you have selected Use fixed expiry date. When Use fixed expiry date is set, this option specifies the minimum length of time that the certification will be guaranteed to be active. If a user completes their certification and there is less than this amount of time until it would be due to expire, the expiry date is pushed forward by another whole active period.

      4. Input a value for Recertification Window (the period before certification expires that a learner can start re-certifying).

      Please note: When the window opens, all course and activity completion data will be reset, including courses and activities completed by RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning - awarding a course completion to a learner who has completed an equivalent course previously).

      5. Click Save Changes.