Overview
Traditionally, training reporting begins after a user is enrolled in a module - tracking enrolment dates, due dates and completions.
The Roles feature allows reporting to begin before enrolment. By assigning a job role to a user, you define the skills they need to attain. Users can then work towards those skills through internal training or by recording external knowledge. Reporting begins as soon as the role is assigned.
THIS FEATURE REQUIRES A BUSINESS 50 PLAN OR LARGER
Please note that the Roles feature is not available on smaller plans (such as Lite) or legacy plans.
Contact our team at [email protected] if you would like access to this feature.
Key concepts
Key concepts
Role: A single position description (e.g. 'Sales Manager') or secondary requirement (e.g. 'Fire Warden'). Roles can also represent qualifications (e.g. 'Cert IV in Training and Assessment'). Each user can have up to five roles assigned to them. Roles consist of one or more competencies.
Competency: A collection of related skills that represents a 'part' of a role. Competencies can be shared across multiple roles.
Skill: A single, defined piece of required knowledge. Skills are the smallest element in the model and the only element a user can directly attain — through completing topics or pathways, or by recording external knowledge.
Step 1 - Enable the Roles feature
Confirm that Roles is included in your plan (see plan requirement above).
Navigate to Admin → Account → Subscription.
Enable the Roles feature.
Note: Only Super Admins can enable or disable the Roles feature.
Step 2 - Create your roles, competencies and skills
Roles, competencies and skills are managed at Admin → Account → Roles.
Each item shares the following common fields:
Name: A short display name.
Code (optional): A reference code. Useful when using Roles for qualifications (e.g. mapping to unit codes). Codes are visible on the Roles section of a learner's profile.
Description (optional): A longer description. Particularly useful for skills, to clearly define what is required to attain them.
Active: Items can be set to inactive to remove them from selection without deleting them.
Create skills
Start by creating your skills, as these will be assigned to competencies in the next step. Each skill represents a single, defined piece of required knowledge.
You can create skills manually or use the Skills CSV bulk upload.
Create competencies
Create the competencies required for your roles, then assign your skills to each competency.
You can create competencies manually or use the Competencies CSV bulk upload.
Create roles
Create each role and assign the relevant competencies to it.
You can create roles manually or use the Roles CSV bulk upload.
Step 3 - Assign roles to users
Each user can be assigned up to five roles. Roles can be assigned in two ways:
Manually: Edit a user's profile at Admin → People, then assign roles in any of the five available role fields.
Via bulk upload: Use the Upload People function and enter the exact role title into the Role 1–5 fields. Roles must already exist in the portal before uploading.
Once assigned, roles are visible in the user list at Admin → People and on each user's profile, under both the Profile and Roles tabs.
Step 4 - Assign skills to knowledge
The primary way for users to attain skills is by completing topics or pathways that have skills assigned to them.
The same skill can be assigned to multiple topics or pathways, giving users flexibility in how they attain it.
Skills can be assigned to topics and pathways via the General settings on the Settings tab of a topic or pathway or using the bulk action button available on the topics or pathways tabs in Knowledge.
Adding skills to individual topics or pathways
Open the topic or pathway in Admin.
Select the Settings tab.
Click Edit in the General section.
Click Set Skills and select or deselect skills as needed.
Click Save.
Adding skills to multiple topics in bulk
Navigate to Admin → Knowledge.
Use the checkboxes to select one or more topics.
Click Bulk Action and select Add Skills.
Select the skills to assign, then click Set Skills.
Note: The bulk action can only be used to add skills - there is no bulk action to remove skills.
Topics vs pathways
Consider whether a skill should be attained by completing an individual topic or only upon completing an entire pathway:
To award skills at the topic level, assign skills to each topic - not the pathway.
To award skills only when the full pathway is completed, assign skills to the pathway - not the individual topics.
When is a skill attained?
A skill is attained when a user completes the topic or pathway it is assigned to. Note that:
Skills are not attained upon enrolment - only upon completion.
Skills are not retroactively awarded if a skill is assigned to a topic or pathway after a user has already completed it.
To apply a skill to already-completed enrolments, use the UPDATE enrolment code via the Upload People process.
Step 5 - Enable external knowledge recording
Users can also attain skills by recording external knowledge on their profile. This option is enabled for all users by default.
When recording external knowledge, users can assign one of their required skills to the item recorded.
Note: Users can only select from skills that are required by their assigned roles.
Step 6 - Report on role attainment
Once roles are assigned and users begin attaining skills, you can monitor progress in several ways.
User profile - Roles tab
When viewing a user profile in Admin, the Roles tab displays their progress towards each assigned role.
Each required skill is shown with one of the following statuses:
Missing: The skill has not been attained.
Current: The skill has been attained and has not expired.
Expired: The skill was attained but has since expired.
Only Current skills count towards overall role attainment.
Team leader visibility
Team leaders can also monitor their team members' progress towards roles directly from the Team tab on the learner homepage.
This includes a Roles summary on the Summary page and a dedicated Roles tab featuring a Skills Matrix filtered to their team.
Analytics reports
The following reports are available in at Admin → Analytics (under Roles):
Examples
Example 1 - Employee roles
An organisation has two roles: Sales Manager and Operations Manager.
Both roles share two competencies: Manager Compliance and Management Skills.
The Sales Manager role also requires a Sales Management competency, and the Operations Manager role requires a Project Management competency.
Skills are created and assigned to each competency. For example, the Sales Management competency might include skills such as 'Sales coaching' and 'Sales KPIs'.
Those skills are then assigned to relevant topics in your portal, for example, a Consultative Selling topic might award the 'Sales coaching' and 'Sales KPIs' skills upon completion.
As users complete training and record external knowledge, their progress towards each role increases. Each skill attained is reflected on their Roles tab in Admin.
Example 2 - Qualification tracking
Roles can also be used to track qualifications. For example, a 'Certificate III in Tribal Habits' could be set up as a role, with four units of competency mapped to competencies - such as 'Creating Knowledge', 'Managing Knowledge', 'Managing Users' and 'Reporting on Knowledge'.
Individual modules within each unit become skills (e.g. 'Creating new topics', 'Enrolling users in knowledge').
In this model, skills map to modules, competencies map to units of competency, and the role maps to the overall qualification.
Roles can then be assigned to customers or learners to track progress towards the qualification across multiple pathways and external assessments.
FAQs
Can a user have more than one role?
Yes. Each user can be assigned up to five roles at a time.
Can the same skill be used in multiple competencies?
Yes. Skills can be shared across many competencies and attained through different topics, pathways or external knowledge.
Can the same competency be used in multiple roles?
Yes. For example, a 'Manager Compliance' competency could be assigned to every management role in your organisation.
What happens if I assign a skill to a topic after some users have already completed it?
Those users will not automatically receive the skill. To award the skill retroactively, use the -UPDATE enrolment code via the Upload People process. Learn more.
What happens if a role, competency or skill is set to inactive?
It will no longer be available for selection but will remain stored in the system for future use.