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Mandatory E-Learning for UON Staff: Home

As a member of UON staff, you may be required to complete E-Learning as a regular “refresh” or as part of your induction requirement.

If you are a new member of staff, within a month of starting you will automatically receive an email from the Staff Development team with your login details. Contact sdbookings@northampton.ac.uk should you wish to receive these details sooner or have any queries.

Please note:

  •  To check your official Training or E-Learning completion records: please go to HR Self Service/U4BW. To do so visit HR Self Service > once logged in, click on the three lines tab in the top left > then go to Competence Information. If you need help using the Staff Development function in U4BW please see the short quick Staff Development guide.
  • If you are having any issues with errors related to E-Learning: please scroll down this page to view 'Tips for resolving errors related to Mandatory E-Learning'.    

Mandatory E-Learning for UON staff is split across various portals:

  1. Astute
  2. MetaCompliance (a replacement for Bob's Business as of 1st June 2025)
  3. LinkedIn Learning

1. Astute

The majority of mandatory E-Learning for UON staff is on Astute. To log in, please:

E-Learning for you to complete on this portal includes the below:

  • Anti-Bribery Essentials
  • Data Protection Briefing
  • Display Screen Equipment
  • Equality & Diversity Essentials
  • Fire Safety
  • Protecting Students' Consumer Rights *
  • Safeguarding Essentials
  • Understanding Consent and Sexual Harassment for UON staff *
  • Whistleblowing Essentials
  • Working with the Prevent Duty

* compulsory only for specific staff. If you have access to it on this portal, please complete it.

Please note: as of June 2025, all these mandatory E-Learning courses have a two-year refresh rate.

You can additionally access the below on the Astute portal. None are mandatory but are highly recommended:

  • Accessible Teaching and Learning
  • Challenging Unconscious Bias (connected to the completion of other staff development activity)
  • Environment and Sustainability Induction for UON Staff
  • Implementing Reasonable Adjustments
  • Introduction to Race Equity
  • Menopause Awareness for Line Managers (though all staff will benefit from this course)
  • UON Strategy 2023-2027

If you have any problems logging in to the E-Learning above or have any queries, please contact us via sdbookings@northampton.ac.uk

2. MetaCompliance

The mandatory Cyber Security Essentials is on a separate E-Learning portal called MetaCompliance (a replacement for Bob's Business as of 1st June 2025). To access it, please:

3. Health, Safety & Security Induction for Staff at the University of Northampton

The Health, Safety and Security Induction for Staff at the University of Northampton is a ten-minute video and is accessible via LinkedIn Learning. 

To access it please:

Should you have any problems accessing the video:

For more about LinkedIn Learning and how both UON staff and Students can access and use it, including a guide on how to use the top features, please see LinkedIn Learning for Students on the UON website.

Tips for resolving errors related to Mandatory E-Learning

To support you, here are answers to some of the most common queries related to E-Learning errors:
 
1. Links to policies don’t work.

  • On campus: Cloudflare must be turned off for intranet policy links to work.
  • Off campus: Ensure Cloudflare is on. If already on, toggle it off and back on.
  • If issues persist, contact sdbookings@northampton.ac.uk.

2. Training missing from “Active Courses”

  • For a quick fix: go to Activities → Completed, select the relevant course, and re-launch it.  Complete  all elements of the course, including any policy reviews.
  • If this does not resolve the issue, email sdbookings@northampton.ac.uk to update enrolments.

3. Unexpected number of courses
Courses are categorised as: 

  • Mandatory: required for all staff
  • Compulsory: required for specific roles
  • Other: recommended, or linked to specific interventions/manager requirements

Astute contains a wide range of courses. Some are mandatory for all staff, some are compulsory for specific roles, and others are optional. All Mandatory courses start with the word “Mandatory”. Please focus on mandatory courses, and those that are compulsory based on aspects of your role (i.e. working with  students)

Mandatory courses for all UON staff are: 

  • Display Screen Equipment
  • Fire Safety
  • Working with the Prevent Duty
  • Equality & Diversity Essentials
  • Data Protection Briefing
  • Anti-Bribery Essentials
  • Whistleblowing Essentials
  • Safeguarding Essentials
  • Cyber Security Essentials (this used to be called Information Security Essentials and is accessed via MetaCompliance)

If you work with students, the following are also compulsory: 

  • Protecting Students’ Consumer Rights
  • Understanding Consent and Sexual Harassment for UON Staff (new from August 2025)

Most mandatory training must be refreshed every two years (Information Security annually). Courses may appear as active before they are due, but you only need  to complete those for which you have received a reminder or which your manager has requested you complete.

4. Asked to repeat training recently completed

  • Check that all elements of the course are complete (often a missed policy review causes this issue).
  • If everything is complete and the issue remains, contact sdbookings@northampton.ac.uk

Support and Reporting

The Staff Development team is available to assist with any training or development queries.

  • Updated mandatory training reports are shared monthly (second week) with executive teams.
  • Compliance data is reported to ULT every two months.