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How can I record training, licences, accreditations, documents and qualifications?

Use the External Knowledge feature in Tribal Habits to record training, licences, qualifications, certifications, documents and development plans completed outside the platform, so all learner knowledge is visible in one place.

Joey Halbert avatar
Written by Joey Halbert
Updated this week

Overview

The External Knowledge feature in Tribal Habits allows organisations to capture and track learning, certifications, licences and other evidence that has been completed outside the platform. This ensures a complete, centralised view of each learner’s development history, compliance records and professional credentials.

Key concepts

Internal vs external knowledge

Knowledge in Tribal Habits can be thought of in two ways:

  • Internal knowledge: Knowledge created and completed within the Tribal Habits platform, including topics and pathways (inclusive of elements within such as Events and SCORM module).


    Tracking, enrolment and reporting are managed automatically within the platform.
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  • External knowledge: Knowledge completed outside the platform, such as external workshops, third-party training providers, professional certifications, licences and qualifications. In this case, it is knowledge and training completed in an external environment which your Tribal Habits platform has no immediate tracking or reporting for.
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    The External Knowledge feature allows this information to be manually recorded so it appears alongside internal learning, allowing for a single view of all knowledge held by your learners.

Purpose of the External Knowledge feature

External Knowledge is designed to:

  • Record completed training, licences, qualifications and evidence

  • Maintain a historical record on each learner profile

  • Support compliance and audit requirements

  • Contribute to training time, CPD and goal tracking

External knowledge versus Requirements

In Tribal Habits, there are two key ways to formally collect and maintain evidence for compliance and accreditation purposes. These purpose-built features are:

  • External Knowledge – for recording training, licences, qualifications and documents that have already been completed (typically outside the platform), and for maintaining them as a historical record on a learner’s profile.

  • Requirements – a dedicated learning element that can be added to topics to collect evidence as part of a structured learning or compliance workflow within the platform. This can include evidence for activities completed either inside or outside the platform, when formal submission, review and approval are required.

The Requirement element allows you to define exactly what evidence a learner must provide and how it is assessed. It supports:

  • File uploads

  • Structured evidence fields

  • Assessor review and sign-off

  • Recertification and expiry tracking

Requirements can also be configured for periodic re-completion, where evidence must be resubmitted and re-approved at defined intervals (for example, annual licence renewal or recurring compliance checks).

In summary, use External Knowledge for recording externally completed or historical records, and use Requirements when you need a structured, auditable workflow to collect, assess and periodically revalidate evidence, regardless of where the learning itself took place.

Steps to record External Knowledge

Step 1: Decide who will add the record

External Knowledge can be added in four ways:

1. By the learner

  1. On the learner homepage, open the Profile tab.

  2. Go to the External Training panel and click Add to create a new record.

Note: Learners can only edit or delete records they created themselves.

2. By a team leader

  1. On the learner homepage, open the Team tab.

  2. Open the Members tab and select a team member.

  3. Click Add in the External Training panel.

3. By an admin (single record)

  1. Navigate to: Admin → People.

  2. Locate the applicable learner and click their name to open their profile.

  3. Navigate to the History tab, click I want to... and select Record Knowledge.

4. By an admin (bulk upload)

Admins can upload External Knowledge in bulk using a spreadsheet. For details, click here.

Step 2: Choose the External Knowledge type

When creating a record, select one of the following types:

  • Training: External workshops, webinars, professional development

  • Certificate: Skill-based certifications (e.g. First Aid, Microsoft)

  • Qualification: Academic or vocational qualifications

  • License: Legal or operational licences (e.g. driver’s licence, forklift)

  • Document: HR or administrative records (policies, medical certificates, etc.)

  • Development Plan: Development plan tracking review stage, reviewer, signed date, next review date, notes and attachments. You can include notes and attach a certificate or other relevant evidence.

Step 3: Complete the knowledge form

Depending on the type selected, the form may include:

  • Title, code and provider

  • Completion and expiry dates

  • Licence or qualification type

  • Assessment scores

  • Training duration

  • Continuing education points or hours (when Goals are enabled)

  • Skills attained (linked to role-required skills)

  • Notes

  • File uploads (certificates and evidence)

  • Details of the person who created the external knowledge record (and time)

Step 4: Save and track

After populating the required fields, click Save.

External Knowledge is treated in the same way as internal learning records for tracking and reporting purposes. Once saved, it:

  • Appears in the learner’s History

  • Contributes to training time totals

  • Is included in Goals and CPD reporting

  • Is tracked in the Timelines report (create, edit, delete events)

FAQs

What types of external knowledge can be recorded?
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Training, certificates, qualifications, licences, documents and development plans.

Who can edit or delete External Knowledge?

  • Super, Standard, and Knowledge Admins can delete any external knowledge.

  • Team leaders can edit the external knowledge of their team.

  • Standard users (learners) can edit the external knowledge they created (but not that created by an admin, team leader or via the API).

Super Admins can impose a portal-wide restriction on the adding or editing of external knowledge.

Note: Editing restrictions apply to records created after 22 Oct 2024. Records created before this date remain editable by users unless a portal-wide restriction is enabled.

How is External Knowledge reported?

Admins can view all External Knowledge recorded in their portal in the Admin area at Admin → Knowledge → External. In addition, there is an External Knowledge report available at Admin → Analytics.

These pages allow for detailed reporting by people, types of knowledge, completion or expiry dates and more.

Can I disable External Knowledge?

The External Knowledge feature is enabled by default. However, Super Admins can disable it at Admin → Account → Subscription by disabling the External Knowledge toggle.

Can adding and editing be restricted to Admins only?

Yes. Super admins can enable the Restrict adding and editing External Knowledge to Admins only at Admin → Account → Subscription (on the External Knowledge panel).

This allows Super, Standard and Knowledge admins to create external knowledge. Other users will retain view-only access.

What file types can be uploaded as part of an external knowledge record?

Only the following file types can be uploaded as part of an external knowledge record:

  • Documents: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, .txt, .md

  • Spreadsheets: .xls, .xlsx, .ods

  • Presentations: .ppt, .pptx, .odp

  • Images: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .tiff

  • Audio: .mp3, .wav

  • Video: .mp4, .mov

  • Other: .zip

A maximum size limit of 250mb applies. For security purposes, file types not listed above are not supported.

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