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How to set up verified skills: A step by step guide

Written by Marie Xhauflair

Verified skills let you reward learners for what they have actually demonstrated, not just for clicking through content.

A learner submits an answer or uploads proof of their work, a reporting manager grades it, and only then is the badge awarded. This guide walks you through the full setup, from rights to automations, in the order you should build it.

👀 Good to know

Want to understand the concept first? 👉 Read Skills, badges, and grading: how they work together to make verified skills before you start building it!

Step 1: Give a user reporting manager rights

Verified skills only work if someone can grade. That someone is the reporting manager.

A grader needs two roles, both assigned to the same group:

  • Manager

  • Reporting manager

With both roles in place, they can review and grade every submission from learners in that group and its subgroups.

👉 How to give a user or a group access to reporting

🚧 Be careful

Roles are set at group level, not per learner. If a learner is not in a group the grader has access to, their submission will never appear for grading.

Step 2: Create a learning bite with something to grade

Grading needs something to grade. That means your learning bite must contain a template where the learner submits their own work.

  1. Go to Content > Activities and create a new learning bite

  2. Open the learning bite in the content builder and click Add a template

  3. Choose one of the three templates that support grading:

  • Open Question: the learner writes a free text answer

  • Upload file: the learner uploads a document or other file

  • Upload image: the learner uploads an image

Uploads are powerful for practical skills. Asking a learner to photograph the task they completed gives the reporting manager real evidence to grade, rather than a description of what the learner thinks they did!

🚧 Be careful

One of these three templates is required, not optional. Without something submitted by the learner, there is nothing for the reporting manager to grade, and the badge can never be awarded.

Grading also only works on learning bites, so other activity types cannot be used here.

Step 3: Enable grading on the learning bite

Adding the template is not enough. You also need to switch grading on in the settings of the learning bite.

  1. Open the learning bite you want to set up

  2. Go to Settings > Edit the activity settings

  3. Find the Grading section

  4. Tick Enable grading

  5. Click Save

Once grading is enabled, the activity moves into the grading workflow. The learner can finish it, but it stays on Pending approval until a reporting manager has reviewed it.

In the same settings panel you will find Allow reset if graded. Leave it unticked if the first submission should be final. Tick it if you want learners to be able to redo the activity and try for a better grade!

👉 Setting up grading on a Learning bite

Step 4: Add your activities to a programme

Now bring your graded activities together into a programme so learners follow a logical flow.

Place the graded learning bite where it makes sense in the learning journey, usually after the content that teaches the skill you are about to verify.

Step 5: Create your skill category and badges

Skills live in TinQwise Control, and they are organised in two levels: a category (the overarching competence area) and the skills inside it (each with its own badge).

  1. Go to TinQwise Control > Behaviour > Skill

  2. Create a skill category with a name and description

  3. Add the skills to that category, including the badge image, completed badge image, call to action, and celebration message

👉 Skill feature

✏️ Tip

You can also use a category to represent one skill at different levels, such as Beginner, Advanced, and Expert. Handy if you want to show depth rather than breadth.

Step 6: Add the skill badge to your programme

With the badge created, you can place it in the programme flow right after the graded activity.

  1. Open the programme you want to edit

  2. Click the + icon and choose Skill

  3. Search for your badge by title or description and select it

  4. Click the lock icon on the badge to set when it is awarded

In the lock popup you choose between two unlock conditions:

  • All previous activities completed: the badge is awarded once the learner has completed everything in the section up to that point

  • Previous activity completed: the badge is awarded as soon as the learner finishes the single activity directly before it

Choose the one that fits your design, then click Save.

👉 Adding skills to a programme

Step 7: Set up your grading automations

This is the step that ties everything together. Automations make sure the activity is completed when a learner passes, and reset when they do not.

Go to Behaviour > Automations and set these up:

When the grade is sufficient:

  • Event: Activity is graded

  • Condition: Activity graded, with Minimum grade to pass: 1

  • Action: Complete activity

Once the activity is completed, the badge is awarded.

When the grade is insufficient

  • Event: Activity is graded

  • Condition: Activity graded, Minimum grade to pass: 0

  • Action: Reset activity

Resetting the activity lets the learner try again instead of being stuck.

👀 Good to know

The platform uses a simple pass or fail threshold. A grade of 1 or higher (Pass, Good, or Excellent) counts as sufficient.

Want a higher standard? Set the minimum grade to 2 or 3 so only the better submissions award the badge.

🚧 Be careful

Set up both automations. Without the reset action, a learner who fails will not be able to try again.

👉 Setting up grading notifications and automations

What happens once it is live

Your setup is now complete. Here is the flow your learners and managers will experience.

For the learner

  1. They open the learning bite and submit their answer or upload

  2. The badge shows a pending state instead of being completed straight away

  3. Once graded as passed, the activity is completed and the badge is awarded

  4. Once graded as failed, the activity is reset so they can try again

The badge is actually awarded the moment the learner opens the Upskill menu. That is where they collect it, and where they get the overview of all their badges.

🚧 Be careful

Learners are only notified about their grade if you have set up a notification automation. Without it, they will find out the next time they visit Upskill. Setting up the notification is what makes the flow feel responsive.

Badge states

The badge itself tells the learner where things stand.

State

What it means

In progress

The learner has started working towards the badge

Locked

The unlock condition has not been met yet

Pending

The activity has been submitted and is waiting to be graded

Failed

The reporting manager graded the submission as insufficient. The activity is reset so the learner can try again

Completed

The submission passed and the badge has been awarded

Expired

The badge needs to be renewed by redoing the linked content

For the reporting manager

  1. They see the submission waiting for grading in the Grading tab of their reporting

  2. They review the answer and mark it as passed or failed, with a comment

  3. They switch to the Skills tab for the full overview of all skills, showing which team members have earned each one and who has not yet

👉 How to grade a learner's submission

👉 Monitoring skill development of members, as a grader

That is it! Every badge in your platform now represents a skill someone has genuinely demonstrated and a qualified person has verified.

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