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Certifications & Retraining Public Beta: FAQs and What’s Coming at GA

  • October 9, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 92 views

jasmine.baretto
Docebian

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Public Beta for the redesigned Certifications & Retraining experience. Your questions and feedback shaped this FAQ, which answers the most common ones and explains what’s coming at GA on October 28 and beyond. If something isn’t covered here, keep sharing it with us through the Community, the Ideas section, or Support.
 

Question

Answer

How should we use legacy and new certifications while both co-exist?

We recommend using the new certification type for brand new certifications and continuing to use legacy certifications until the migration next year. You don't need to migrate your legacy certifications to the new model manually. The platform also won't allow it if you try to reuse the same course in both a legacy and a new certification.

Will any new functionality be added before or at GA on October 28?

The core feature set available today is complete, and no new core capabilities will be added before General Availability (GA) in the upcoming October release. Between now and the October release, the work focuses on extending other areas of the platform to support the new certifications. The following features are upcoming with the release:

  • Notifications and Events (audit trail and webhooks): three new notifications for the new type of certifications, and existing learning plan notifications extended so that the Certification resource type can be used in trigger filters.
  • Gamification: badges can be created and assigned when a certification is completed.
  • New certifications will be supported in Docebo Companion
  • Mobile support
  • Global Search integration for the new certifications.
  • One custom report: "Users - Certification and Retraining" will be renamed "Users - New Certifications", and two legacy reports will be renamed to make clear that they contain legacy certification data only.

Which other standard features will support the new Certifications after GA?

After GA, support for the new certifications will be added to the following areas:

  • My Team
  • My Transcript
  • Other standard custom reports
  • CSV import flows (course assignment and enrollments via CSV)
  • The existing Courses and Learning Plans widget

What happens now that the feedback period is closed, and what will happen at General Availability?

Now: If you've enabled the new certifications through Launchpad, you can keep using them on your platform. You can also still share feedback through our standard channels: post in the Community groups, suggest features you'd like to see added to the new certification model, or contact Support if you run into unexpected behavior.

At GA (October release): The redesigned Certifications & Retraining experience becomes a standard platform capability. It will be enabled for all customers, and the option to enable or disable it from Launchpad will be removed.
Your existing legacy certifications will keep working as they do today, and no existing data will be affected. Legacy and new certifications will coexist after the release.

Are the new Certification & Retraining APIs already available?

Yes, they're already exposed in your API browser. We're preparing a usage guide covering the key changes, planned to be published by GA.

Which widgets support the new Certifications

The Task List Widget is being extended to support the new certifications. The new certifications will be visible under the 'Certifications to renew' tab of the widget when they are in the renewal window. The new type of certification's will be clickable which takes the learner to the Certification overview page.

Additional certification metadata will also be visible to learners such as the certification name, status, expiration and renewal information.

Can the new type of certifications be assigned to a learning plan

No, only courses can be assigned to a learning plan, and the new type of certifications.

Can learners complete different courses for the initial certification and for renewal, and if not yet, when will this be supported?

Currently, the new type of certifications require learners to complete the same course/s during the initial certification and renewal.

The certifications can however, be edited by administrators at any time where new courses can be assigned, or removed from the Certification and the changes can be pushed to learners already enrolled in it, or future enrollments. These changes will apply to learners depending on the certification recalculation options the admin chooses at the time of publishing the changes to the certification structure.

Future enhancement: Based on the most requested beta feedback, we plan to add support for renewing a certification with different courses than the initial one. Admins will be able to configure the courses required for the initial certification path and, optionally, a set of courses required for the renewal path. Following GA in the October release, we first plan to complete support for the new certifications across My Team, My Transcript, and standard custom reports. We then plan to address this feedback as part of our 2027 roadmap. Timelines are not yet final.

Is it possible to assign a course to a Certification and mark it as optional?

Yes, when assigning a course to the new type of Certifications you can mark them as optional or mandatory. But a certification needs at least one mandatory course for it to be published.

Is it possible to create the new type of Certifications without a course (mandatory or optional) assigned to it?

Not currently. The new Certifications require at least one mandatory course before they can be published; without one, the certification stays in "Under maintenance" status and isn't usable.

Will certifications support more flexible completion rules in the future, such as completing any one of two courses to earn the certification?

Yes, in the long term we want to extend the completion requirements of the new certifications to support more flexible scenarios like this one, where a learner can complete a subset of courses to count toward the certification. We first want to add support for a different set of renewal courses, which will lay the groundwork for these future enhancements. This is in our backlog.

In the meantime, you can achieve this OR logic today using course equivalencies:

  1. Add the courses that should count toward the certification.
  2. Mark them all as mandatory.
  3. Mark them as equivalents of each other.

Completing one of these courses then marks the others as complete, which completes the certification.

Why does a learner's course completion sometimes not count toward their certification renewal?

This was one of the most common issues reported in the Public Beta. Learners click Replay on the course instead of Renew or Renew Now and complete the mandatory courses again. The certification still shows as Expiring or Expired.

Why it happens: Replaying a course only acts on the learner's existing, already-completed certification enrollment, so it doesn't start a new one. For a course completion to count toward renewal, the learner's old enrollment must first be archived and the learner re-enrolled in the certification. How this happens depends on the certification's Renewal Policy:

  • Renewal window is configured (set to trigger automatically, or edited manually by an admin from the Enrollments tab): archiving and re-enrollment happen automatically once the renewal window opens, or as soon as the admin action is processed.
  • "Allow learners to renew the certification anytime" is selected: the learner must select Renew Now to trigger their own archiving and re-enrollment.

Only after re-enrollment succeeds does a course completion count toward the new enrollment. Clicking Replay alone does not.

What we're doing about it: We're making the renewal path clearer, with two improvements planned for General Availability in the October release:

  • Where learner action is needed, Renew Now becomes the obvious, primary action whenever a certification is due for renewal.
  • If a learner tries to play a course during an active renewal window, a modal appears when they click Replay, letting them choose between replaying the course or renewing the certification.

Can Power Users manage new certifications, and how does their access work?

Yes. New certifications currently use the same Learning Plan permissions. Grant a Power User the Learning Plan permissions (View, Create, Edit, Delete) on their profile, then assign the relevant resources to them, which can include the new type of certifications alongside regular Learning Plans. 

How can admins or Power Users force a user to renew a certification?

From the Certification Enrollments list, an admin (or a Power User with Learning Plan permissions and the certification assigned to them as a resource) can select one user, or multiple users at once, and choose the "Renew Certification" option inside the Archive Enrollment action. This resets the learner's progress and re-enrolls them in the required courses, achieving the same outcome as the learner clicking Renew Now themselves, without relying on the learner to take that action. 

Additionally, for individual learners, admins and Power Users can select the "Edit Certification Dates" action to set a new certification expiration date, renewal window, or issue date. This action is not available for bulk updates of multiple users.

While both legacy and the new certifications co-exist, how will learners differentiate a legacy certification from a new certification, and know where to go to renew?

Legacy certifications and the new Certification & Retraining experience are designed to coexist on your platform, both remain fully functional side by side, and we know this transition period raises real questions about where to look and what to click. Here's how it works today:

  • My Activities tabs are split by type. The old "Certifications" tab is now called "Legacy Certifications" and shows only legacy certifications, nothing changes in how it works. New certifications (created from the Learning Plans and Certifications page) show up in the "Learning Plans and Certifications" tab instead. If you have at least one new certification, a banner appears at the top of the Legacy Certifications tab pointing you to the right place.
  • How to tell which is which: if a certification was created using the original, now renamed, Legacy Certifications menu, it's legacy, and you'll manage and renew it through the Legacy Certifications workflows. If it was created from the newer Learning Plans and Certifications page, it's new, and you can manage and renew it from any of the areas that support new certifications: the Learning Plans and Certifications tab in My Activities, or the Certification Overview page, reachable from the My Courses and Learning Plans page (this page will be renamed My Enrollments in an upcoming release).
  • Task List widget: starting with General Availability in the October release, this widget's Certifications to renew tab will display legacy and new certifications together in the same list. For now, only the new certification row is clickable, taking you to that certification's Overview page.

In short: nothing you already have access to is being taken away, legacy and new certifications simply live in clearly labeled places during the coexistence period, and we're actively closing the remaining gaps so both experiences feel consistent.

Which reports display the new Certification data? And are new reports being added?

Today, one report shows new certification data: "Users - Certifications & Retraining." it's being renamed "Users - New Certifications" for clarity, and shows enrollment and award details for users against new certifications. 

Two other reports, "Users - Certifications" and "Certifications - Users", continue to show only legacy certification data. They're being renamed "Users - Legacy Certifications" and "Legacy Certifications - Users" so their scope is unambiguous now that both models exist side by side. The above renaming of reports will be available with the October release. 

Beyond those three, most of our other standard custom reports (such as Users - Learning Plans, Learning Plans - User Statistics) don't yet reflect new certification data when a course or learning plan belongs to a new certification. Extending these reports to fully cover new certifications is planned to follow GA and is on our 2027 roadmap.

Later, we plan on bringing new certification data into Insights as well, including a Type filter to distinguish Learning Plans from Certifications.

Will the "Calculated from the issue date" Certification expiration setting support units other than days (e.g., weeks, months, years)?

Yes. Expanding this expiration option to support days, weeks, months, and years, instead of just days, is on our 2027 product roadmap to make it easier by letting you select the unit directly.

What certification features will be supported on the mobile app?

Full certification support is coming to the mobile app starting at General Availability (October 28). Once live, learners will be able to:

  • See the new type of certifications as their own visually distinct tile, separate from regular Learning Plans, with filters to find them.
  • Open an in-app Certification Overview page showing its status, call-to-actions, and the underlying course details.
  • Renew their certification directly from the app.
  • Download their earned certificates, etc.

What migration options will be available for moving legacy certifications to the new certification model?

Our plan for the new certifications after GA:

At GA, the redesigned Certifications & Retraining experience becomes a standard platform capability. Your legacy certifications will keep working as they do today, and both will coexist. From there, we plan to roll out the next phase in three stages.

1. Completing the foundation. We'll extend the new certifications into the remaining areas of the platform, including My Team, My Transcript, and the standard custom reports.

2. Building what you asked for. We'll then enhance the certification model itself, starting with the capabilities most requested in beta feedback. These include renewing a certification with a different course than the initial one, and adding support for external training in the new Certifications.

3. Moving you over. Once these capabilities are in place, we'll provide a dedicated migration tool to move your legacy certifications to the new model, designed to minimize effort on your side and preserve your learner history. We plan to make it available in H2 2027, well ahead of the legacy shutdown, so you have ample time to plan and complete your migration.


Note: October 28, 2026, is the current release date of our quarterly primary release. GA will move if the release date changes.
 

5 replies

lrnlab
Hero III
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  • Hero III
  • October 9, 2026

Thank you ​@jasmine.baretto what I do not see here, or what is not clear is what about the notifications? I still do not see anything specific as to whether we will have new templates or whether the existing notificaitons will be updated to include certain types so users can be direct to the proper tab/course when renewing. Do you have additional information on this please?


jasmine.baretto
Docebian

Thank you ​@jasmine.baretto what I do not see here, or what is not clear is what about the notifications? I still do not see anything specific as to whether we will have new templates or whether the existing notificaitons will be updated to include certain types so users can be direct to the proper tab/course when renewing. Do you have additional information on this please?

Hi ​@lrnlab, thanks for your question.
Notifications are covered in the second question above. To elaborate on that answer, three new notifications for the new type of certifications are being added - Certification expiring, expired, and being renewed, and all existing learning plan notifications extended to work for the new Certifications. You can configure the learning plan notifications so that a Certification resource type can be used in trigger filters.
Hope this helps.


lrnlab
Hero III
Forum|alt.badge.img+10
  • Hero III
  • October 9, 2026

thanks ​@jasmine.baretto so we’ll only see these with GA? I do not see these in sandbox.


Hi jasmine.baretto

Can you clarify the following:

Does this mean we do not need to manually migrate legacy certifications now, or we will not need to do this early next year? Also, if they do not need manually migrating, how will this occur?

How should we use legacy and new certifications while both co-exist?

We recommend using the new certification type for brand new certifications and continuing to use legacy certifications until the migration next year. You don't need to migrate your legacy certifications to the new model manually. The platform also won't allow it if you try to reuse the same course in both a legacy and a new certification.

 

How soon before GA in the Oct release are the 3 new certification type notifications set to be available? Will the existing certification triggers still work at GA on 28 Oct?

Will any new functionality be added before or at GA on October 28?

The core feature set available today is complete, and no new core capabilities will be added before General Availability (GA) in the upcoming October release. Between now and the October release, the work focuses on extending other areas of the platform to support the new certifications. The following features are upcoming with the release:

  • Notifications and Events (audit trail and webhooks): three new notifications for the new type of certifications, and existing learning plan notifications extended so that the Certification resource type can be used in trigger filters.
  • Gamification: badges can be created and assigned when a certification is completed.
  • New certifications will be supported in Docebo Companion
  • Mobile support
  • Global Search integration for the new certifications.
  • One custom report: "Users - Certification and Retraining" will be renamed "Users - New Certifications", and two legacy reports will be renamed to make clear that they contain legacy certification data only.

 

 


jasmine.baretto
Docebian

Hi ​@joanne.gerard ​@lrnlab 

Regarding the legacy certification migration: We are developing a dedicated tool scheduled for H2 2027 (well ahead of the legacy shutdown) that will handle the transition and protect all learner history. You can use that tool for migrating when it is live.

Regarding notifications: They will be available in all platforms with our upcoming primary October release. They are currently not available in sandbox environments.