Refresher reminders: how training providers stop delegates lapsing

Question 1

When should refresher reminders go out?

Accepted Answer

Refresher reminders should start early enough to book a date before the certificate runs out. Dante, training management software for training providers, gives this example schedule in its help pages: the first reminder two months before the expiry date, the second one month before, and the third one day after it has expired. It adds that the gap between reminders is the provider’s own decision. The date a certificate runs out depends on the course: First aid at work certificates last three years, according to HSE. A first aid at work certificate is renewed by a requalification course taken before it expires; HSE also strongly recommends an annual refresher, though it is not mandatory. MHFA England says its mental health first aid training is valid for three years. MHFA England’s four-hour refresher, online or face to face, gives another three years of certification, and it recommends one every three years.

Question 2

Why do reminders never reach some people?

Accepted Answer

Refresher reminders miss people for four ordinary reasons: the person is not on the list the reminder goes to, there is no email address for them, the address belongs to a job they have left, or the email lands in junk. One training client’s records in September 2026 showed how this happens: 63 of the 216 people due a refresher were not on the list the reminder email went to. 16 of the 216 people due had no email address in the CRM at all. Across the whole CRM, 2,887 contacts had moved to a new organisation while the CRM still showed the old one. Inboxes run three checks to confirm an email really comes from the sender, and in the client’s account all three came up short, one reason the emails were landing in junk, with 200 refresher reminders ready to go. The fixes are plain once someone looks: rebuild the list from the course records, find addresses for the people with none, match the people who moved to their LinkedIn, and put the sender settings right. The sender settings take about 20 minutes.

Question 3

How do you find everyone who is due, organisation by organisation?

Accepted Answer

Everyone due a refresher can be found from two facts: the date each person did the course, and how long their certificate lasts. Add one to the other, sort by the date that results, and group the people by organisation, because several people at one organisation can often be booked together. In one training client’s list in September 2026, one organisation had 66 people due a refresher at the same time: one conversation with the person who books training there could cover all of them. The course dates were split between the CRM and the client’s spreadsheets for each year’s courses from 2023 to 2026, so the list had to be built from both, and 14 people trained in 2023 with no month recorded went on a list to check by hand. Fully Sealed lists everyone due every month, by month and by organisation, with the person who books training at each organisation where the records show one.

Question 4

What do you say once a certificate has run out?

Accepted Answer

Once a certificate has run out, say so plainly, say what it now takes to be covered again, and give the next date. For first aid at work, HSE says first-aiders need to requalify before their certificates expire, and that once a certificate has expired the person is no longer considered competent to act as a workplace first aider. Safe Haven Training, a first aid provider, gives people up to 28 days after expiry to register for its First Aid at Work requalification course, and says there is no grace period in the meantime. Some courses let a refresher renew the certificate only within a set time; after that, the full course is needed again. In one training client’s records, 1,324 people had gone past the point where the client’s refresher would do; every one of them could come back on the client’s two-day course, and nobody had asked them back. Fully Sealed lists people like these by organisation every quarter, ready for a welcome-back invitation, which can be three sentences long: It’s been long enough since your course with us that the refresher won’t cover it now. The two-day course would get you certified again, and there’s one on Tuesday the 10th. If a few of you at work need it, we could look at running one for your team.

Question 5

What is a year of refreshers worth?

Accepted Answer

A year of refreshers is worth the number of people due, times the refresher price, times the share who book. At one training client’s own prices in September 2026, the 216 people due a refresher were worth £32,400 + VAT if every one booked at £150, and the 1,324 who had lapsed were worth £21,450 + VAT if one in twenty came back on the two-day course at £325. In one training client’s records in September 2026, one reminder email reached 153 of the 216 people due and brought at least five bookings, and another 187 people reach three years in 2027.

Course	How long it lasts	What renews it	Source
First aid at work	First aid at work certificates last three years, according to HSE.	A first aid at work certificate is renewed by a requalification course taken before it expires; HSE also strongly recommends an annual refresher, though it is not mandatory.	HSE’s page on first-aiders, dated 21 March 2025, and its first aid FAQs.
Mental health first aid (MHFA England)	MHFA England says its mental health first aid training is valid for three years.	MHFA England’s four-hour refresher, online or face to face, gives another three years of certification, and it recommends one every three years.	MHFA England’s FAQs and its refresher course page.