How read-and-understood is derived

Open: Training in NormaQMS for people, reading requirements, the matrix and qualifications; NormaLMS, from the product switcher at the top of the sidebar, for onboarding (training items, tests, job roles, trainers, sign-offs and the supervisor view). Typical leads: Quality Manager and Department Manager; technicians may record permitted completions; every person signs their own training. Purpose: show who is trained on the required effective documents, with revision-specific evidence of reading, testing and sign-off.

Training is free on every plan, with unlimited people, and includes the onboarding pages in NormaLMS. The NormaLMS Library of courses is a separate purchase (chapter 35).

Assign required reading

1. Ensure the instruction has an Effective revision in Document Control.
2. Select Require reading, choose the document and person, and submit.
3. Confirm the person appears under that document in the training matrix.
4. Repeat for the other people who actually need that instruction. Assign by responsibility, not simply to every employee.

The requirement follows the document across revisions. It is not a one-time assignment tied only to Rev A. Remove a requirement when the person's duties no longer require it, using the offered Remove action. The removal is retained in history.

A reading requirement makes its document a training item under the reading-only rule, if it is not one already: one reading completes it, as reading requirements always have. Documents that had reading requirements before training items existed were made reading-only items in the same way, so every status on them reads as it did. A quality manager can later move an item to the full rules (chapter 11, Training items and the full rules).

Record completion

The matrix identifies the document number, title, revision in force, and required people. Current means an eligible completion covers the current training requirement; Due means it does not.

For your own assigned reading, open the effective file and choose I've read Rev …. For supervised or recorded completion, an authorized user selects Record completion beside the person and adds an optional note. A person can also acknowledge a due reading from the shop-floor tablet under their own name (chapter 21). Confirm the person's status and the exact revision recorded.

Completion captures the revision and its file hash. It cannot be recorded against an arbitrary draft or a superseded revision as though that were the version in force. A person without an active requirement cannot be made current through an unrelated completion.

These steps complete a reading-only item. On an item under the full rules, a recorded reading is only one part of the record: the person stays Due until they pass the test, if there is one, and sign in Your training, and a trainer signs where one is required. The matrix shows the same answer as Your training.

When an instruction changes

If the person making the new revision effective chooses retraining, assigned people return to Due for that revision. If they choose no retraining with a rationale, eligible current reading carries forward. Earlier completions remain attached to their original revisions.

The training window. When an approved revision is scheduled to take effect on a later date (chapter 9), people train on it before that date:

• While it waits, a person trained on the revision in force stays current on it and is due on the new revision, with a due date of the day before it takes effect (New revision, retrain by {date}). They can open, test on and sign the approved revision during the window.
• From the effective date, a person trained only on an earlier revision is overdue, and blocked where the item blocks work. A new hire who was never trained keeps the due date from their start date.
• Under the full rules, the author and the approvers of a revision count as trained on it, matched by the email address on their person record. Under the reading-only rule, and for a revision approved before the item moved to the full rules, they owe the reading like anyone else.
• A job released on the earlier revision still accepts people trained on that revision (chapter 11, The floor block and temporary deviations).

Example: adding a new inspection method normally changes what the technician must know. A corrected spelling may not. The person making the controlled decision records the rationale; the software does not decide technical training impact.

Use the matrix correctly

Review Due rows during daily or weekly follow-up. Use department reporting to find groups needing attention. Reading requirements on the Training page opens a register with one row per active requirement: person, department, document, revision in force, and Current or Due. Filter it by department to see exactly the requirements behind a training figure on the Reports page. A reading completion shows read-and-understood evidence; it does not by itself document a practical qualification test, welding certification, or task-specific competency assessment. Those are qualifications, recorded and accepted separately below.

In the user guide

This article is part of chapter 11, "Training and Competence", of the NormaQMS User Guide (NORMA-UG-001), which is under Help > User guide. Chapter numbers in the text refer to that guide. The same chapter also covers: Where training lives; Maintain the people list; Training items and the full rules; Tests; Job roles and due dates; Trainers; Your training; Sign people off as a trainer; Training on the shop-floor tablet; The floor block and temporary deviations; My people, the matrix and the transcript; Training in My Work and the Monday digest; Record and accept a qualification.