Training
the setup that makes the module tell the truth

1What an administrator sets up

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The day-to-day work - running sessions, adding records, delivering talks - is covered in the Training User Guide and the Training Sessions User Guide. This guide is the handful of decisions that shape what those pages report.

There are five, and only the first is genuinely required:

Decision	Why it matters
The requirements matrix	Nothing counts as a gap until you have said it is required. This is the one that makes the module useful.
Job title scope	Whether a job title and its requirements apply across a client's sites or at one location only.
Talk rotation	What ShieldSphere suggests next, and on which day of the week.
Reminder preferences	Whether expiry emails go out, and to whom.
Portal visibility	Whether employees and contractors can see their own training.

2Who can see Training

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Training sits in the Daily Work group of the workspace sidebar. Whether it is available depends on your plan, and the module was built with one deliberate exception to that:

Field users - people using the mobile app rather than the full dashboard - can read the tracker and create a session, so a foreman can run a tailgate talk without needing an administrator to set it up first.

3The requirements matrix is the policy

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This is the setup task that matters most, and the one most likely to be skipped. Until a training is required of a job title, nobody can be short of it - so an empty matrix reports that everyone is current, forever, no matter what the records say.

4Job titles across sites

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A job title added to the matrix is shared across all of a client's sites by default. That is deliberate: a forklift operator is a forklift operator wherever they work, and making each site invent its own job titles produces a matrix nobody can read across.

Individual requirements can still be scoped. When you set one, choose:

5The weekly talk rotation

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Rotation decides what ShieldSphere puts up as the next toolbox talk, so a crew gets a sensible year of topics without anyone planning one. It is set per location, on the Toolbox Talks tab.

Setting	What it changes
Day of the week	The day the next talk is dated to. Set it to the day you actually hold them.
Industry	Weights the rotation towards the talks that matter for your work, so a warehouse is not offered trenching.
Jurisdiction	United States, Canada, or both - which decides whether the Canadian talks are in the rotation.

The card shows what is next in rotation, along with anything flagged as a priority for your industry or a seasonal pick - heat illness in July, cold stress in January.

6Expiry reminders

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ShieldSphere emails when training is coming up for renewal, on a fixed cadence:

When	What is sent
30 days before expiry	The first warning - enough notice to book a course.
7 days before expiry	The second warning.
On expiry	The record is marked expired and appears in the expired count and the gap report.

Each reminder is sent once per record, so a record cannot generate the same warning twice. Reminders go to the organization owner, and can be turned off in that person's notification preferences.

7Contractors and the employee portal

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Two audiences outside your dashboard can be given a view of training, and both are opt-in.

Employees

The employee portal has a My training module which, when switched on, lets employees see their own training records, the sessions they attended, and their certificates. It is the cheapest way to stop people asking you for a copy of their forklift card.

Contractors

Contractor personnel can sign in to a session the same way your own people do - the public sign-in page has an I work for a contractor switch, and picking their company routes the record to that contractor's crew list rather than your employee roster. Contractors also have their own toolbox talk flow in the contractor portal.

8Signatures and evidence

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Sessions require a signature by default, and it is worth leaving that on. A list of names proves attendance was recorded; a signature against an attestation proves the person said they were there and understood the material. Signatures are stored privately and appear on the attendance sheet for the session.

For anything wider than one session - an audit, a client request, an insurance renewal - the evidence pack on the Training overview exports sessions, records and attendance across a date range you choose.

9Troubleshooting

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What you see	What to do
The gap report is always empty	The matrix has no requirements. Nothing is a gap until it is required - start from the suggestions drawn from your policies.
Trained people still show as gaps	The requirement's topic name and the training record's name do not match, or the requirement has a renewal interval the record has passed.
A job title appears at a site that does not employ it	Job titles are shared across a client's sites by design. Scope the requirement to This location rather than removing the column.
Nobody is getting reminder emails	Check the organization owner's notification preferences - training reminders can be switched off there. Records still track expiry regardless.
A reminder went out only once	That is intended. Each record sends its 30-day and 7-day warning once each, so a long-expired record does not nag forever.
Employees cannot see their training	The My training module is off in the portal settings. It is opt-in.
Library talks are locked	The full library, QR sign-in and PDF export are on the paid plans. The ten-talk sampler and recording training you delivered are always available.
Contractor sign-ins land as unmatched	The attendee did not pick their company on the sign-in page. Link them from the session's attendance list.