Yes. A course automation can grant one of your Recognition awards the moment somebody passes a course. This is how you turn a completed course into a visible credential on the person's profile, which is what most organizations mean when they ask for a certificate of completion.

Plan required: both the Recognition module and Courses are available on the Enterprise and Ultimate plans.

1. Why can a milestone not do this on its own?

Because rule-based awards only measure two things. When you build eligibility milestones on an award, the metric type is either Hours logged or Shifts completed. Course completion is not one of the available metrics, so no milestone you can write will ever fire on a passed course.

The link runs the other way instead. The award sits there waiting, and the course reaches out and grants it.

2. How do I set it up?

Two pieces, in this order.

First, create the award. Go to the Recognition page, click New Award, and give it a title, a description, an icon or a custom image, and a folder. Set the Award Method to Manual-only. See question 3 for why.

Then, add the automation on the course. Open the course in the course builder, go to Automations, and add an automation with:

• Trigger: When the user completes the course. This one only fires on a pass, which is exactly what a certificate should represent.
• Action: Award an achievement, then select the award you just created.

You can select one award per action. If a course should grant two, add a second action to the same automation.

3. Should the award be manual-only or rule-based?

Manual-only. A manual-only award has no eligibility rules of its own, so the only way anyone gets it is when you grant it or when the course automation grants it. That is precisely the behavior you want for a course credential.

If you make it rule-based, you have to give it milestones, and those milestones will grant it to people on hours or shifts who have never opened the course. Worse, everybody who already qualifies is awarded the moment you publish, so a rule-based award goes out retroactively across your whole history. A course credential handed to people who never took the course is not a credential.

4. What does the person see?

The award appears on their Awards page, under the Awards by Organization tab, with whatever icon or image you gave it. It sits alongside the platform-level Vome Achievements, which are a separate system on the Awards by Vome tab.

They are only emailed about it if you enabled notifications on that award. Notifications are configured per award, where you choose who receives the email, the time of day, the subject and body, and the template. If you want people to actually know they earned it, turn that on when you create the award, because the default is silence.

You can also have the course itself send the message. A course automation can run Send a notification to the user in the same automation that grants the award, and course notifications support variables such as $first_name, $course_title and $score. That is the better option when you want the email to mention the score.

5. Should I add other actions to the same automation?

Usually yes. The recognition is often only half of what should happen when someone passes.

The same automation can also Assign tags, which is how a completed course opens up access to restricted shifts or reveals a semi-private Opportunity. Granting the award and assigning the access tag together keeps the two in step, so nobody ends up holding the badge without the access it is supposed to represent. See How do I use a course to unlock shifts and Opportunities?

6. Can I revoke it if the course expires?

Not automatically. A course automation can fire when someone's course expires, but its four actions do not include revoking an award, so an expiry does not take the badge back on its own.

To remove it by hand, open the award's detail page, go to the People tab, switch to the Awarded sub-tab, and choose Revoke from the row menu next to the person's name. You can revoke in bulk from the same tab.

In practice, many organizations decide not to revoke at all. Passing the course in 2024 is a true historical fact, and the thing that actually needs to lapse is the access, not the recognition. Manage the lapse with the profile tag and leave the award standing.

7. What about the award's other settings?

A few interact with this setup and are worth thinking through before you publish:

• Visibility. An award set to Admin-only is hidden from the people who earn it, which defeats the purpose here. Keep it user-visible. If you add a Visibility Policy, remember its conditions combine with AND, so check the people finishing your course actually satisfy every condition you set.
• Award Cap. A cap limits how many people can earn an award. If you set one on a course credential, test it with a couple of profiles first so you know what happens when the cap is reached.
• Repeatable. Repeatable only applies to rule-based awards on a recurring window, so it is not available on the manual-only award recommended here.
• Show Progress to Users. This tracks progress toward milestones, so it does nothing on a manual-only award. Leave it alone.

8. Is the award the same thing as a printable certificate?

No. The award is a badge on the person's profile inside Vome. It is not a document they can print or send to a school or an employer.

If somebody needs a printable record of what they did with your organization, that is the Impact Report, a certificate of involvement carrying your logo and name, their opportunities, completed shifts and logged hours, and optionally an administrator's signature. See The Impact Report: your certificate of involvement.

Summary

• A course automation with the trigger When the user completes the course and the action Award an achievement grants a Recognition award on a pass.
• Milestones cannot do this. They only measure hours logged and shifts completed.
• Make the award manual-only, so nothing except the course can hand it out.
• Turn notifications on if you want the person to hear about it, either on the award or through the course automation.
• Grant the award and assign the access tag in the same automation.
• Expiry does not revoke an award. Revoke by hand from the award's People tab, Awarded sub-tab, or leave it standing and manage the access instead.