Summary
My Training is where each person learns skillSYMS by doing the job their role is accountable for. Your track is a path of short quests. Each one sends you into the real product to do the work, checks that work against your workspace’s records where it can, and ends with a three-question check. Finish every required quest and you can claim a certificate that anyone can verify. Team Training shows managers who has started, finished, been certified or fallen overdue.
Who This Guide Is For
- Staff at a provider starting their skillSYMS track: administrators, facilitators, assessors, moderators, quality, finance, operations and executives
- Managers who want to see who is ready, and assign a track with a due date
- Learners looking for their own Learner track
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have:
- A skillSYMS login with your correct role (your role decides which track opens first)
- The Staff Academy module enabled in your workspace (My Training appears under Operate → Staff Academy)
- For Team Training: permission to view Academy progress (managers, administrators and quality officers usually have it)
Tip: Quests create real records in your workspace. Do them with real information you intend to keep, not test data you will have to clean up later.
Step 1: Open My Training
Go to Operate → Staff Academy → My Training (/sdp/training).
- Learners: open My Training in the learner portal (
/learner/training), or More → My Training in the mobile app.
The header reads skillSYMS Academy with your track’s name, a progress ring and your due date if a manager has assigned one.
Step 2: Make Sure It Is Your Track
skillSYMS opens the track your role points at. Check the name matches the job you do.
- If you see “This is not the track your role points at”, you are on someone else’s track. You can still finish it, but check it is the one you meant.
- If you see Pick the track closest to your job, your role could not be matched. Choose a track under Every track.
- To switch, scroll to Every track. Tracks are grouped by what the job is for: Run the provider, Deliver the programme, Assure the quality, Keep the record straight and Beyond the provider. Your own track carries a Your role tab.
Staff can open every provider track, which is a quick way to learn a colleague’s job before covering for them. Learners see only the Learner track.
Step 3: Follow the Path
The path lists your quests in order, because each one leaves something behind that the next one needs.
| Marker | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Start here | The first required quest you have not finished. Begin with this one. |
| Optional | Useful depth, but not needed for the certificate |
| Green dot | The quest has steps checked against real records |
For example, the Administrator & Registry track starts with Make the workspace yours, Get your colleagues in, Put your first programme on the system, Register a learner, safely, Enrol the learner on the programme and Prove the data is submission-ready.
Step 4: Work Through a Quest
Open a quest to see its steps under Do this. There are two kinds:
- Read steps open a guide. Read the part named, then tick the step.
- Do steps open the real page in skillSYMS. Do the work there, then come back and tick the step.
Some Do steps are verified. When you tick one, skillSYMS looks for the record first:
- If it finds it: “Verified against real records.”
- If it does not: “Not done yet — we looked for … and found none.” Go and do the step, then tick again.
Getting that refusal means the check is working. It does not mean something is broken.
Step 5: Pass the Check
Every quest ends with three questions. All three must be right.
- Answer every question, then click Submit answers.
- If one is wrong you’ll see “Not yet — read the explanations and try again.” The explanation for each question appears whether you were right or wrong.
- Click Try again as often as you need. When all three are right: “Passed — quest complete.”
Whether you passed first time is recorded, and retries do not change it.
Step 6: Claim Your Certificate
When every required quest is done, a strip appears: “Every required quest is done.”
- Click Claim certificate. You’ll see “Certificate issued.”
- The certificate appears under Your certificates, with its number, the quests completed, the steps verified out of the total, and the first-pass rate.
- Use Download PDF to save it, or Verify to open its public verification page
(
/verify/cert/<certificate number>), which you can share with anyone.
The certificate costs nothing to claim. It is a skillSYMS product training record, not a qualification. The certificate and the verification page both say so.
Step 7 (Managers): Track Your Team in Team Training
Go to Operate → Staff Academy → Team Training (/sdp/training/team), or click Team progress on My Training.
The summary tiles show People, Started, Completed, Certified, Overdue and No track matched. Below them, each person gets a row:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Person | Name and email |
| Role | Their skillSYMS role |
| Track | The track their role points at, or the one you assigned |
| Progress | Required quests done, or Not started if they have not opened it |
| Due | The due date you set (shown in red once overdue) |
| Certificate | Certificate number and PDF link, once issued |
To assign a track with a due date:
- Click Assign on the person’s row.
- Enter the number of the track from the list shown.
- Enter a due date as
YYYY-MM-DD, or leave it blank for no deadline.
Assigning a track is optional: training is self-serve without it. Assigning needs permission to manage Academy.
What managers do not see: individual answers, which questions somebody got wrong, or how many attempts a check took. That is deliberate — people learn more when a wrong guess is not reported upwards.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Ticking a verified step before doing the work: the step stays open. Do the work in the product first.
- Using throwaway test data: quests create real records in your workspace. Use real information.
- Expecting Overdue without a due date: nobody is overdue until a track has been assigned with a date.
- Doing the wrong track: if the amber note says it is not your role’s track, check before you spend an afternoon on it.
- Calling the certificate a qualification: it shows someone completed their skillSYMS operating track. It is not NQF-registered and confers no assessor or moderator registration.
Verification Checklist
Before moving on, verify:
- My Training shows the track for the job you actually do
- Your verified steps say Verified against real records, not just ticked
- Every required quest shows as complete, including its check
- Your certificate appears under Your certificates and its Verify page opens
- (Managers) Team Training lists your staff, and anyone who must be ready by a date has an assigned track
Next Steps
- Getting Started for Training Providers — The wider setup your Administrator track walks through
- Inviting Team Members & Assigning Roles — Get the roles right so each person lands on the right track
- Certificates & Verification — How public verification works for the certificates you issue to learners