What Is Mandatory Compliance Training

Mandatory compliance training is training an organisation cannot choose to skip, because an Act, regulation or licence condition ties it to the right to operate. In Australia the mandate usually names an outcome rather than a named course, which is why two employers in the same industry can meet the same obligation with quite different training.

Two different things get called mandatory, and confusing them causes real problems. The first is training compelled by law, where a regulator can act if it has not happened. The second is training an employer has made compulsory through its own policy, which matters internally and can support a disciplinary process, but carries no regulatory penalty on its own. Both belong in a training plan. Only the first one sets a floor you cannot negotiate.

Where the law is explicit, it tends to attach the requirement to a licence, an office or a position in a supply chain rather than to every worker:

• Financial services. Section 912A of the Corporations Act requires an Australian financial services licensee to maintain the competence to provide its services and to ensure its representatives are adequately trained and competent.
• Heavy vehicle transport. The primary duty under the Heavy Vehicle National Law reaches operators, schedulers, loaders, consignors and consignees, so chain of responsibility training extends well past the driver.
• Governance and conduct. Entities carrying anti-bribery, fraud or disclosure obligations are expected to train the people exposed to those risks, which is where bribery, corruption and fraud and conflicts of interest training earn their place.

Whichever category the training falls into, the organisation is judged on what it can show. That means completion records, refresher cycles and a clear link between the role and the training assigned to it, which is the practical job of a learning management system. ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 105 on organisational competence is a useful example of how closely a regulator can look at who is trained and how that is demonstrated. Obligations differ across states and territories and change over time, so treat this as general information rather than legal advice and confirm what applies to your industry.

Posts tagged here work through what is genuinely compulsory and what is simply expected. To see what a structured programme looks like, browse Sentrient’s compliance training courses.