Mandatory Training Policy

Information on the requirement for staff to undertake mandatory training courses.

Content

• Purpose and key principles
• Mandatory training courses
• Who needs to complete mandatory training?
• Out of scope
• Exemptions
• Timeframe for mandatory training completion
• Refreshers/Cadences of training 
• Mandatory training records management
• Mandatory training compliance reports
• Implications for UCL for non-compliance
• Implications for Staff for Non-Compliance
• Role specific training courses
• Accessibility or requests for reasonable adjustments
• Long term absence
• Contractual status 
• Appendix

Purpose and key principles 

1. This policy provides information on UCL’s mandatory training courses and outlines which courses must be undertaken by which types of staff.

2. The provision of mandatory training helps to ensure that UCL can meet its institutional, legal, and social responsibilities and provides staff with a safe and positive working environment.

3. This policy also provides information on how compliance will be monitored and the implications for non-compliance.

4. Completion of mandatory training is also a requirement of certain regulatory bodies.

5. Mandatory training courses have been designed to take approximately 30-35 mins to complete

Online Mandatory training courses:

• UCL Fire Safety
• UCL Safety Induction
• Data Protection and Freedom of Information
• Information Security Training (hosted externally on the Cybsafe platform)
• Prevent at UCL
• Change Possible: Sustainable UCL
• Introduction to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
• Disclosing and managing conflicts of interests at UCL

Who needs to complete mandatory training?

6. The following individuals with access to UCL systems must complete mandatory training: - (Staff categories listed below are generic based on how staff are defined in MyHR and other Services systems) - All users based on their Staff association type and employee group will be enrolled automatically onto the required mandatory trainings.

• All UCL Payroll Employees
• PGTA's (undertaking paid work)
• As and when workers (sometimes called casuals) *
• Affiliate Academics
• Agency workers (including Unitemps’ workers) **
• Employees who are jointly appointed by UCL and another employer (some exemptions are in place for those who are jointly employed by UCLH, see Exemptions below for further details)*
• Honorary staff who are appointed through the Honorary Staff appointments procedure*
• Emeritus Professors*
• Associate Staff (if at UCL more than 3 weeks) *
• Visitors (e.g. lecturers/Researchers if at UCL more than 3 weeks) *
• NHS Staff/Clinicians*
• Students or others undertaking an paid work placement

**Unitemps workers with access to UCL systems must complete mandatory training as per the Mandatory Training Policy. It is the responsibility of the hiring manager to ensure these are completed. However, students completing one-off assignments, Student Ambassador roles, Events roles and other student jobs are not required to do the training as long as local Fire Safety and Health and Safety inductions are provided.

Please contact uclmandatorystafflearning@ucl.ac.uk for further information

Out of scope

8. The following groups are not subject to this policy and are not required to undertake UCL’s staff mandatory training courses, either because they are not required to undertake the training or because they have their own arrangements for training:

• Students (own arrangements)
• Doctoral students (own programme of doctoral mandatory training).  If they are hired to undertake paid work for UCL they may fall in scope if they fit one of the categories detailed above.  
• Visiting Research Students (own arrangements)
• Students Union casual staff (own arrangements)
• Self-employed contractors/consultants (own arrangements or may undertake our courses)*
• Workers who are employed by a contractor company to undertake work at UCL (own arrangements)*
• General one-off visitors *
• One-off guest Lecturers*
• One-off workers e.g., a casual, bar staff, induction support, nursery helping at an event who will not return to UCL*

*Line managers or hiring managers must ensure these individuals receive a Fire Safety Induction and Familiarisation (TN086) conducted in-person, by their department Fire Evacuation Marshals (FEM) or Department Safety Officer (DSO) on their first day on Campus or if they change location. They must also complete local safety induction training.

5. Exemptions

9. NHS clinicians, jointly employed by UCL and UCLH, who complete the following training courses at UCLH will be exempt from completing them with UCL. Currently, an agreement has been reached with UCLH to provide exemption to clinicians who complete the following UCLH mandatory training courses:

• Data Protection and Freedom of Information
• Information Security Training
• Prevent at UCL
• Introduction to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• Basic Fire Safety
• Safety Induction

10. It is vital that clinicians always keep their mandatory training record up to date at UCLH for this collaboration to work.  UCLH will send the data to UCL each month under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the organisations, which will enable UCL to update staff’s mandatory training record.

11. UCL will continue to review its position on enabling exemptions more broadly with its network of NHS partner trusts subject to data sharing agreements, approval of training content, and automated compliance reporting functionality.

Timeframe for mandatory training completion

12. UCL requires individuals (see “Who needs to complete mandatory training?”) to complete the following mandatory training courses along with local building safety training as listed below.

First Day of employment the below On-site inductions should be completed:

• Local Fire Safety Induction* (On-site)
• Local Safety induction (On-site)

* Line managers are responsible for scheduling local on-site building familiarisation Fire Safety (TN086 Walk) training for employees on their first day. They should liaise with safetytraining@ucl.ac.uk to arrange this.

13. New/existing people with UCL log in credentials will be auto enrolled onto the online training courses.  An email notification will be sent to their UCL email address with a link to access the relevant training.

14. Training can be accessed using UCL login credentials via Chrome, Firefox, or Safari with a stable internet connection.

Refreshers/Cadences of online trainings

15. To ensure ongoing knowledge and understanding, individuals will be required to refresh the mandatory training courses again as part of a refresher cycle once their completed training has reached its cadence.

Annual Refresh Cycle

• Data Protection and Freedom of Information
• Information Security (hosted externally on the Cybsafe platform)

Three-Year Refresh Cycle

• UCL Fire Safety
• UCL Safety Induction
• Prevent at UCL
• Introduction to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
• Disclosing and Managing Conflicts of Interest
• Change Possible: Sustainable UCL

Mandatory training records management

16. Those who complete the course will receive a certificate by email and are asked to keep the certificate safe to evidence their completion. The record of completion will move with staff that transfer departments. 

Individuals can also check their completion status on Inside UCL.

Mandatory training compliance reports

17. Individuals who are not compliant with the mandatory training requirements will receive system generated email reminders.

18. The compliance dashboard on Tableau shows the percentage of compliant individuals across the university and can be viewed more specifically by faculty or department. Members of the University Management Committee will continue to receive executives’ monthly updates on mandatory training compliance trends.

19. The line manager or head of department will contact individuals to identify if there are any valid reasons for non-compliance and how to overcome any barriers that have been identified. Templates on mandatory training escalation for use by heads of departments and line managers will be made available in summer on the mandatory training SharePoint site.

Implications for UCL for Non-Compliance

20. UCL may be required to demonstrate compliance with mandatory training to bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive, Information Commissioners Office, Employment Tribunals, external auditors, and funding bodies.  Non-compliance may result in UCL being fined, prosecuted, or having funding withdrawn.

Implications for Staff for Non-Compliance

21. To successfully complete their probationary period, new employees are required to complete mandatory training under UCL’s  Probation Policy.

22. Mandatory training compliance must be up to date prior to considering an employee for an additional increment, professorial re-banding, and senior promotion.

23. Employees who continue to be non-compliant after reminders and a discussion with their line manager, may be subject to UCL’s Disciplinary Procedure.

24. Honorary staff and Emeritus Professors who continue to be non-compliant after reminders and a discussion with their line manager may have their title or assignment revoked.

Role specific training courses

25. The following courses are essential for certain individuals undertaking specific roles. Those required to undertake these courses will be informed, by their line manager. Some courses may be required to be retaken when there are changes to regulations and course content.

• UCL Safeguarding Training - The training content is getting updated and is aimed at colleagues who work with vulnerable adults or children at risk in their role.
• Fair and Inclusive Recruitment at UCL - For Recruiting managers, panel members and recruitment administrators, explaining about the recruitment process and other useful information about recruitment.
• Understanding and protecting intellectual property - For academics, research associates, professional services research support staff (e.g., all those in roles creating and handling research outputs, supporting research proposals and collaborations), innovation and enterprise support staff (e.g., business managers, partnership managers), and staff involved in procuring specialist services.
• UCL Safety Training - If you are laboratory-based, undertaking genetic modification work or work with biological agents etc.

For any other role-specific training, that is not listed above, you may contact the relevant department that is responsible for that course and ask them to manually update your record showing your evidence of completion. In addition, please save a copy of your completion certificate for your own records.

Accessibility or requests for reasonable adjustments

26. UCL’s mandatory training courses are “AA” compliant in WCAG accessibility standards.  If anyone has any further accessibility requirements or requests for reasonable adjustments in relation to mandatory training, please contact the staff mandatory learning mailbox.

Long term absence

27. Those who are absent from work long term will not be required to complete the training until they return from absence. For example, staff on different types of parental leave (maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption, ordinary parental leave); those on long-term sickness absence, on career break, or on external secondment.

Contractual status

28. This policy does not form part of any employee’s contract of employment and UCL may amend it at any time after consultation with the recognised trade unions.

For queries on mandatory training please email uclmandatorystafflearning@ucl.ac.uk

For queries on the policy please email employmentpolicy@ucl.ac.uk

APPENDIX

Regulatory Requirements 

HR Employment Policy Team and Organisational Development

March 2024