Course overview
Poorly controlled records create legal exposure, undermine investigations, increase storage costs and make reliable evidence difficult to find. Organisations must retain records long enough to meet operational, regulatory and contractual duties, then dispose of them defensibly. This requires more than a retention schedule: it requires classification rules, ownership, metadata, secure repositories, disposal controls and auditable decision-making.
This course equips participants to design, improve and operate records retention and archiving arrangements. Participants examine the records lifecycle, ISO 15489 principles, retention-rule research, records classification, metadata, legal holds, secure destruction, transfer to archives and digital preservation. They learn how to distinguish records from non-records, apply retention triggers, establish ownership, assess repository controls and test whether disposal decisions can withstand audit, litigation or regulatory scrutiny.
Instruction combines focused briefings with records scenarios drawn from banking, public administration, health services, infrastructure, NGOs and multinational operations. Participants work with sample policies, retention schedules, file plans, legal-hold notices, disposition logs and audit findings. Throughout the course, they build a practical records retention and archiving package for a realistic business function or their own workplace, including a classification structure, retention rules, governance controls and implementation plan.
The course suits professionals responsible for records, information governance, compliance, legal operations, archives, digital transformation and business administration. It is particularly relevant where records are held across shared drives, email, collaboration platforms, line-of-business systems, paper files and outsourced storage.
