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Quick Summary: Training approvals are the verification process that lets employees record skill training and have it reviewed by an authorized approver — such as a manager, admin, or designated subject matter expert — before it counts as verified in SkillsDB.

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Overview

Training approvals are how SkillsDB verifies that an employee’s training record is legitimate and substantiated. When an employee records training for a skill, that record enters a pending state and must be reviewed by an authorized approver before it is considered officially verified. Only approved training records count toward a user’s trained status for a skill. This process helps organizations maintain accurate, trustworthy skill records by ensuring training completions are supported by evidence and reviewed by someone with oversight — not simply self-reported. Training approvals connect directly to each employee’s skills profile, so an approval is reflected in team reports, skill gap analysis, and the training matrix. Training approvals are relevant to three groups: employees who submit training records, managers and admins who review and action those records, and subject matter experts (SMEs) who hold the Expert flag with Trainer Permission and can be designated as approvers by their colleagues.

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Prerequisites

Before submitting or actioning training approvals, confirm the following:
  • Submitting a training record: Any SkillsDB user can submit training for skills on their profile
  • Approving as a manager or admin: Manager or Administrator role required
  • Approving as an SME: An admin must have enabled Trainer Permission on the Expert skill flag, and a manager must have applied the Expert flag to you for the relevant skill

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How Training Approvals Work

Training approvals follow a defined workflow with four key stages:
  1. An employee submits a training record for a skill with supporting evidence
  2. The record enters Pending status and appears in the authorized approver’s Inbox
  3. The approver reviews the record and selects Approve or Reject
  4. The training record moves to a terminal state of Approved or Rejected
StatusMeaningCan action
PendingSubmitted, awaiting reviewYes — approver can Approve or Reject
ApprovedVerified by an authorized approverNo — record is read-only
RejectedNot verified; evidence was insufficientNo — employee can resubmit a new record
ExpiredApproved training has passed its expiration dateNo — employee can renew training
Note: Once a training record is Approved or Rejected, it becomes read-only. The dialog shows who actioned the record and when. Approved training may expire over time based on settings configured by your admin. See Training Expirations for details.
Who can approve training Three groups of people are authorized to approve training in SkillsDB:
  • Managers can approve training records submitted by their direct reports
  • Administrators can approve any training record across the organization
  • Expert flag holders with Trainer Permission can approve training for the specific skills where they are designated as Experts — but only if an admin has enabled the Trainer Permission setting on the Expert skill flag
If an employee does not select a delegated approver (SME) when submitting, any manager or admin can review and action the request from their Inbox.

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Submitting a training record

Employees submit training records from their skills profile. Use this process when you have completed training for a skill and want it recorded and verified in SkillsDB.
  1. Navigate to your skills profile and locate the skill you trained on
  2. Select Submit Training on the skill
  3. In the training submission modal, fill in the following fields:
    • Date of Training (required): The date the training took place
    • Trainer (optional): The name of the person or organization that delivered the training
    • Text Evidence (may be required): A written description of the training completed
    • Attachments (may be required): Evidence files such as certificates or course completions
    • SME (optional): A subject matter expert to designate as your specific approver
  4. Select Submit
When the submission is complete, the training record is created with Pending status. Your designated SME (or any manager or admin) receives the request in their Inbox for review.
Note: Whether Text Evidence and Attachments are required depends on your organization’s settings, configured by an admin. Accepted file types are: .jpg, .png, .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .txt, .csv — maximum 10 MB per file.
Tip: If you know a specific subject matter expert should evaluate your training, select them in the SME field. This routes your request directly to them and helps ensure it’s reviewed by the most qualified person.

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Reviewing and actioning training requests

Managers, admins, and designated SMEs receive training approval requests in their Inbox. Use this process to review a pending training record submitted by an employee.
  1. Navigate to Inbox from the left sidebar
  2. Select the Approvals category to filter for pending training requests
  3. Select a training approval item to open the Training Approval dialog
  4. Review the details presented in the dialog:
    • Employee name and skill name
    • Date of training
    • Trainer name (if provided)
    • Text evidence (if provided)
    • Attachments (select to preview or download)
    • Delegated approver (if an SME was specified by the employee)
  5. Select Approve to verify the training record, or Reject to decline it
When you approve a training record, its status changes to Approved and the record is reflected in the employee’s skills profile. When you reject a record, its status changes to Rejected and the employee can resubmit with updated evidence.
Important: Approving or rejecting a training record cannot be undone. Once actioned, the record is read-only and displays who made the decision and when.

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Selecting a delegated approver (Expert)

When submitting a training record, you can optionally select a subject matter expert (SME) as a delegated approver. This is useful when a specific expert is better placed than your direct manager to evaluate the training. The SME dropdown is populated with people who have the Expert flag with Trainer Permission enabled for the skill being submitted. If no SMEs appear in the dropdown, either no one has been designated as an Expert for that skill, or Trainer Permission has not been enabled by your admin. Selecting an SME routes the approval request directly to that person’s Inbox. Your manager or admin can still see and action the request if needed.

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Expert flag holders and training approval

Training approval authority can be extended beyond managers and admins to designated subject matter experts through the Expert skill flag and its Trainer Permission setting. When an admin enables Trainer Permission on the Expert flag, any person marked as an Expert for a given skill gains the ability to approve training records for that skill. Those people:
  • Appear in the SME dropdown when employees submit training for that skill
  • Receive training approval requests in their own Inbox
  • Can approve or reject training records for the skills where they are designated as Experts
Expert flag holders cannot approve training records for skills where they do not hold the Expert flag. Training approval authority from the Expert flag is always skill-specific. If you are an Expert for a skill but do not see training approval requests in your Inbox, contact your administrator to confirm that Trainer Permission is enabled on the Expert flag. See Skill Flags for more information on how flags work.
Note: Admins configure the Expert flag and Trainer Permission in Company > Settings > Configure Flags.

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Common Questions

Yes, you can edit a training record while it is in Pending status. Once a record has been approved or rejected, it becomes read-only and cannot be edited. To update an approved training record, use the renew flow to create a new submission — the new record will go through the approval workflow again.
If a training record is rejected, its status changes to Rejected and the record is preserved in your training history. You can submit a new training record with updated or corrected evidence for re-review. The rejected record is not deleted.
If the SME dropdown is empty when submitting training, it means either no one holds the Expert flag for that skill, or Trainer Permission has not been enabled on the Expert flag by your admin. Your training request is still submitted and will be reviewable by your manager or any admin. Contact your admin to request that an SME be designated if needed.
Yes. Training records can be configured with an expiration period by your admin. When an approved training record reaches its expiration date, its status changes to Expired and it no longer counts as active verified training. You can renew an expired training record — the new submission goes through the approval workflow again. See Training Expirations for details.
No. Training records must be approved by someone other than the submitting employee. Authorized approvers are managers, admins, and Expert flag holders with Trainer Permission for the relevant skill.
Approved means an authorized approver has verified a specific training record in SkillsDB. Trained is a skill proficiency status that indicates a user has at least one approved training record for a skill. When a training record is approved, the user’s skill status updates to reflect that they are trained. See Proficiency for a full explanation.

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Related Articles

Skill Flags

Understand how the Expert flag and Trainer Permission work together to grant training approval authority to SMEs

Training Expirations

Learn how approved training records expire and how employees renew them

Skill Gaps

See how approved training connects to skill gap analysis across your team

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Need Help?

If you run into any issues or have questions, reach out to your organization’s SkillsDB administrator or contact SkillsDB Support.