FAQs

Imperial Essentials training covers the critical areas of safety, information security and the working environment for all core staff to equip them with the information and awareness of their responsibilities and expected behaviours while working at Imperial.

All Imperial staff are required to complete the following six Imperial Essentials training courses:

• Data Protection - (Approximate time to complete: 60 minutes)
• Equality, diversity and inclusion at Imperial - (Approximate time to complete: 60 minutes)
• Fire Safety and Awareness training - (Approximate time to complete: 60 minutes)
• Information Security Awareness - (Approximate time to complete: 60 minutes)
• Month One Safety Training (MOST) - (Approximate time to complete: 30 minutes)
• Safeguarding at Imperial - (Approximate time to complete: 45 minutes)

These courses can be accessed from the Imperial Essentials web page.
Please note that specific roles or staff groups may need to complete additional ‘compliance’ training, which will be managed locally.

Please discuss any mitigating circumstances with your line manager.
Successful completion of your probation and any related pay increment may be delayed until all the required training has been completed.
This will depend on individual circumstances.

Each of the Imperial Essentials courses (except Month One Safety Training (MOST), which only needs to be undertaken once) will need to be completed every two years. This is to ensure that your knowledge and understanding are up to date.
You can check if your training is up to date on the Imperial Essentials dashboard.

You should only need to complete this course once. If you completed the course before September 2015, you are expected to do it again.

Everyone can access their compliance training records from the Imperial Essentials dashboard.
Local departments; Senior Managers, admin and data specialist roles have been given access to a dashboard with the compliance records of their departments.
If you are a manager and have any queries related to your team training records, please contact your relevant department representative(s) from the Departmental contacts list (shown on the left-hand side of this page).

All Imperial Essentials courses can be completed online and accessed via the Imperial Essentials web page.

New starters: It takes approximately one day to complete all six compliance training courses. You have six months to complete the required training. You can spread this out or complete it in one go. Managers have been made aware of their responsibility to provide you with the time and support to complete the training.

Existing staff: You only need to complete the courses you took more than two years ago (See the Imperial Essentials dashboard to check your training status).
Please discuss with your line manager or HR partner if you have any issues.

Regular reports on training compliance across each Faculty and Directorate will be presented to President’s Board on a termly basis.
Audit and Risk Committee are also monitoring the compliance training gaps.
The Provost and HR Director are the senior sponsors of Imperial Essentials.

Please discuss this with your team member to understand if there are extenuating circumstances.

For staff in their first six months, Line managers must alert the Staff Hub via the Probation Review form or a simple email to staffhub@imperial.ac.uk if a new starter has not completed the training.

The accuracy of training records depends on staff providing the correct CID numbers when taking the course assessments. There have been instances where incorrect numbers have been entered, and the completed training cannot be identified.
If you have entered your Imperial ID incorrectly, please contact the compliance topic owner (List shown on the left-hand side of this page), who may be able to recover the training record.
When taking an end of course online assessment, your results will be automatically emailed to you. We recommend you save these emails in case there is an issue with your training records on the Imperial Essentials dashboard.
In some instances, you may need to retake the training.

The different training courses of Imperial Essentials sit across multiple platforms, and not all of them automatically upload to ICIS.
Therefore the records on ICIS will not reflect all completed training unless it is manually entered. The dashboards have been specifically created to capture and record Imperial Essentials training.

The dashboard is refreshed every 24 hours. If you complete a course, the results will be available on the dashboard the following day. The results will not show on the dashboard if the CID has been inputted incorrectly as part of a course. If you have entered an incorrect CID or have a query about training you have completed but cannot view, please contact the relevant Essentials course owner directly, who will correct your CID number. In some cases, you may need to retake the course.

Your CID number should be inputted as, e.g. 00321561 - numbers only, no letters.

Please contact the course topic owner if you have difficulty accessing any Imperial Essentials courses. If you have difficulty accessing the Imperial Essentials dashboard, please contact the ICT helpdesk and raise an ASK ticket.

Please email your request or query to HR Report Request and your Strategic HR Partner for any access queries related to the strategic or operational dashboards.

Imperial’s Protection Officer, Robert Scott, has confirmed that colleagues from the Faculty of Natural Sciences will still need to complete the Data Protection course on the Essentials list.

We have a known issue that, on rare occasions, your Information Security Awareness test result may not fully upload to the dashboard.

We are working to resolve the underlying cause. If your successful test result (90% or above for a pass) does not show up on your dashboard after 24 hours, please share a screenshot of your successful result and send it to the Essentials course owner, and we will update it for you.

Due to the nature of some roles across Imperial, accessing or completing courses may be more difficult.

Should you experience difficulty completing or re-passing an Imperial Essentials course test, please discuss it with your line manager. You may wish to also contact the Imperial Essentials Topic Owner, who will support you.

Please complete any name changes via the Staff hub self-service. Last name changes will need to be evidenced.

You can also contact the Staff Hub if you cannot change certain details.

Please provide the evidence and share it with the relevant Essentials topic owner who will update the records.

For any access queries related to the strategic or operational dashboards, please contact HR Report Request.

The dashboard reports on core employees, e.g. contingent or casual workers or honorary staff have access to the training but not the dashboards. Do keep evidence of your training completion for sharing with your line manager.

Due to the nature of some roles across Imperial, accessing or completing courses may be more difficult. Please discuss with your line manager if you or anyone in your team experiences difficulty completing or re-passing an Imperial Essentials course test. As a manager, you may wish to also contact the Imperial Essentials Topic Owner, who will support you.

If staff leave Imperial more than one month from the date of your query, they will still need to complete the training.

If a member of staff is planning to return to Imperial in some capacity within three months, they will need to complete the training. If the period of absence is longer than three months, they will need to complete the training upon their return.

Please contact the course topic owner if you have difficulty accessing any Imperial Essentials courses.

If you have difficulty accessing the Imperial Essentials dashboard, please contact the ICT helpdesk and raise an ASK ticket.

If you need access to the Operational/Strategic Imperial Essentials dashboard, please email your request or query to HR Report Request and your Strategic HR Partner.

No, casual workers are not required to complete the Imperial Essentials training courses.
However, as good practice, if you wish to complete a specific training, you are welcome to do so.
It will not be recorded on PowerBi, but you can inform your manager.