Hello:

I am fairly new to the world of public training and have a question regarding providing participant training completion certificates. To keep it short, what are the best practices regarding training certificates? Should they be signed personally by the trainer? What else should I know.

Thanks in advance,

Natalie

Natalie,
I keep them short - include participant name, course title, dates course was held and trainer's name (w/ trainers signature).

You may also want to include an expiration date if it is a yearly certificate.

If you have a LMS, it may have capabilities to print certificates within it.

You can also find certificate templates on Microsoft Office's template site.

Good luck!

Good reply Becky. I'd also add that you might think about adding numbers to the certificates so that you can track them.

Hi Natalie,
Now that you've opened that can of worms...

Our team came up with the following definitions to distinguish types of certificates - that is, attendance, completion, achievement, participation, recognition, and accomplishment.

Attendance - A passive learning event – no demonstration of skill, no post-test, no attestation

Completion - Active learning event that involves attestation at a minimum.

Achievement - Active learning even that has a post-test and a passing/failing score.

Participation - An onsite personal or professional development event with no post-test or skill demonstration

Recognition - A personal or social contribution

Accomplishment - Not defined and therefore available for use as desired

I say that as long as it's not legal compliance thing or some type of class that's worth credits for college or an official certification of some sort, just have fun with them. It's a way to celebrate.

In most cases, the instructor *at a minimum* should sign.