Federal Records Management

FAQs for GRS 2.6, Employee Training Records

Download all Frequently Asked Questions of Individual GRS Schedules in a PDF

 

1.  Why doesn’t GRS 2.6 include mission-related training?

Agencies must submit their own schedules for records associated with mission activities (such as law enforcement, wilderness preservation, and aeronautics engineering) because the value of the records varies.  For example, NASA has scheduled the records of astronaut training as permanent (N1-255-94-3) but the Federal Reserve System’s Training Bureau scheduled its Law Enforcement Unit mission-specific training records as temporary (N1-82-12-1).

2.  Why doesn’t GRS 2.6 specifically include Learning Management Systems (LMSs)?

GRS 2.6 covers employee training records, so it schedules most content in an LMS, including course content, class tracking, individual development plans, and data reporting.  However, financial information related to paying for courses, purchasing course material, paying outside vendors, or paying for training travel is included under GRS 1.1, which covers financial management and reporting records.  

QUESTIONS RELATED TO GRS 2.6, ITEM 010

3.  What is the difference between registration forms and employee attendance records (item 010) and individual training records like certificates (item 030)?

The records described in items 010 and 030 document different things.  Item 010 covers records specific to a particular class, such as registration forms (who intends to come) and attendance records (who actually came).  By contrast, individual training records (item 030) document training a single employee takes or plans (including Individual Development Plans (IDPs)).  Agencies are also more likely to report registration and attendance records to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) than individual employee training records.  

4.  Why does this item have 2 different disposition instructions: Destroy when 3 years old, or 3 years after superseded or obsolete?

The two retention periods address different ways the records covered by the item might “close.”  Some records—such as the Authorization, Agreement, and Certification of Training (SF-182)—close when the training is complete.  They can be destroyed when 3 years old. Other records—such as syllabi, presentations, instructor guides, handbooks, and lesson plans—may still be in active use when they become 3 years old.  They “close” when active use ceases, and can be destroyed 3 years afterward.

QUESTION RELATED TO GRS 2.6, ITEMS 010 AND 020

5.  What do I do with training material an outside vendor creates?

If a vendor develops training material for an agency and the agency owns the finished product, those materials are Federal records and the GRS covers them.  If an agency purchases access to vendor-owned training material and the agency does not own it, then the GRS does not cover it.

QUESTION RELATED TO GRS 2.6, ITEM 030

6.  Why do you exclude academic transcripts, professional licenses, and civil service exams?

Academic transcripts, professional licenses, and civil service exams are evidence of training, but not training received in the course of one’s Federal employment.  Rather, they are generally prerequisites to being hired for a particular position and as such are usually filed in the long-term section of an employee’s Official Personnel Folder (OPF).  Licenses may need to be retained or renewed, but this process also falls outside the scope of item 030’s coverage (“training required by all or most Federal agencies”). Professional recertification and license renewal is often governed by boards entirely outside the Federal Government.  When agencies do sponsor specialized training toward professional credentials, they must schedule these records independently.

 

Human Resources Schedules (GRS 2.1—2.8)

Do General Records Schedules for human resources records (section 2.0) apply to the records of personnel on staff solely as part of a detail or an Intergovernmental Personnel Agreement (IPA)?

Yes. Items in schedules 2.1 through 2.8 apply to records your agency creates as part of managing personnel on the Federal payroll. This includes those temporarily assigned to your agency on a detail or through an IPA, as well as those permanently assigned to your agency.

 

 GRS Home page

 GRS Schedules page

Top