Import external training: certifications

Great news — you don't need to write any code for this. The cleanest solution I've seen is a Docebo Connect recipe that reads your data from Google Sheets (or a CSV in Box/SharePoint) and calls the Docebo "Create External Training" action, which exposes the Certifications and Retraining field that the UI CSV template simply doesn't include.

The recipe pattern is straightforward:

1. Trigger → New/updated row in Google Sheets (or file dropped in Box/SharePoint)
2. Loop → Iterate over each row
3. Action → Docebo: Create External Training — map your columns to the action fields, including the certification association
4. (Optional) Add a Log step or send a summary email when the batch completes

The Docebo Connect action uses the same API endpoint (/learn/v1/external_training) that powers the UI, but surfaces all available fields - including linking to a certification. The completion date you pass in automatically becomes the Issue date on the certification, just as it would manually.

In organizations I've set this up for, it turns what was a painful line-by-line process into a one-click import — you maintain your data in a spreadsheet and trigger the recipe whenever you have a new batch.

For reference, Docebo's documentation on the External Training app and the Certifications & Retraining app:

• Activating and managing the External training app
• Managing the Certifications and retraining app

Happy to share more detail on the recipe structure if it helps.

We’ve just done them as two separate imports.  One import for the external training record and one import for the certification record.  Since you have the ability to map the columns while you’re doing the import you can use the same CSV file for both or split them apart if you find that to be cleaner.