Sending certificates to learners
Paste or type your learner list, check every row, and issue a whole cohort's certificates in one batch, free.
4 minute read
You issue certificates in batches, from the Issuing page. A batch can be one learner or a whole cohort. It costs nothing: no verifications are spent, and there is no limit on how many certificates you issue.
The page opens once certo has approved your organisation, your company profile is complete and certo has checked your registry number. See Registering as a learning provider.
1. Put your learners in the table
Under Record the certificates, the People step takes your list in one of two ways:
- Paste your list. A copy from a spreadsheet, a CSV export or plain lines of names and addresses. Choose Read the list and certo reads it into the table below. certo keeps none of the paste, and nothing is sent until you confirm the table.
- Type the rows in. Use Add a row for each learner.
You can paste more people into a table that already has rows. They are added underneath.
2. What each column means
| Column | Required | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Yes | The learner's name as it should appear on the certificate. It stays exactly as you give it. |
| Date of birth | No | Lets certo match the certificate to the learner's identity check later. See The learner's date of birth. |
| Yes | Where the learner gets the certificate. They claim it with a code sent to this address, so use one they can read. | |
| Certificate | Yes | The name of the course or certification, for example "Data Analytics Certificate". |
| Reference | No | Your own certificate number. |
| Expires | No | The date the certificate stops being current, if it has one. |
A learning provider's batch carries certificates only. There is no field for a job or a degree.
3. Check every row
Each cell shows its problem underneath it, before anything is sent. The ones you will meet most:
| What the cell says | What to do |
|---|---|
| Required | Fill it in. |
| Not an e-mail address | Correct the address. |
| Use the plain address: nothing like + before the @ | An address with a + or other special character cannot hold a certo account. Use the learner's plain address. |
| Already on an earlier row | The same address appears twice. Remove one. |
| Could be read two ways: write YYYY-MM-DD | A date like 03/04/1990 could be March or April. Write it as 1990-04-03. |
Above the button, a summary counts the rows and how many still need fixing. The button stays disabled until every row is ready.
One batch takes at most 500 rows. Split a longer list into several batches.
4. Issue and send codes
Choose Issue and send codes. For each row, certo:
- Makes a passport for the learner, private and unclaimed.
- Records the certificate on it, confirmed by your organisation.
- Signs the certificate.
- E-mails the learner a link to claim it.
Nothing is published. An unclaimed passport is never visible to anyone.
After you send
Each row shows what happened:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Issued | Done. The learner has their e-mail. |
| Issued before | You already sent exactly this row and its link still works. Nothing new was made or mailed. |
| Corrected | The row replaces an earlier certificate for the same learner that was not claimed yet. Same passport, a new link. |
| New link sent | You sent exactly this row before, but its link ran out unclaimed. A new link went out. |
| Already claimed | The learner already claimed the earlier certificate, so nothing changed. See Correcting or withdrawing a certificate. |
| Not issued | certo could not issue this row. Fix it if needed and send the list again. Nobody gets a certificate twice. |
Sending the same row again never makes a second certificate, so it is safe to resend a list after a connection problem.
A learner can hold many of your certificates. A row with another certificate name, or another Reference, is a certificate of its own. A row with the same reference (or, without references, the same certificate name) for a learner you issued it to before corrects that certificate. Give a renewed certificate a new reference.
The Invitations list beside the form shows every learner you have issued to, and whether they have claimed. How learners claim a certificate explains each status.