Platform courses vs. church courses

There are two kinds of training in Volunteer Circle, and it helps to know which is which.

Platform courses (made by us)

Platform courses are ready-made courses created by the Volunteer Circle team. They’re part of a starter library so you’re not staring at a blank page on day one — you can assign solid training on common topics right away.

• Built and maintained by us
• Available based on your subscription tier
• Assignable to your teams and people just like any other course
• Updated over time without any work on your part

These are great for the things most churches need anyway — welcoming new volunteers, basic safety, serving well — without you having to write them.

Church courses (made by you)

Church courses are custom courses your church authors for your own context — your values, your processes, your ministries. They’re visible only inside your church (no other church sees them).

• Built by your admins/leaders
• Private to your church
• Use the full course builder (modules, lessons, video, audio, text, downloads, quizzes)

Authoring your own church courses requires the higher subscription tier. Every plan can use platform courses; creating custom courses is the capability you unlock by upgrading. (Upload allowances for your own video and files are also larger on the higher tier.)

Which do I need?

• If you mainly want to assign good training fast, platform courses on the standard plan cover a lot.
• If you need training that’s specific to your church — your onboarding, your ministry-specific procedures, your leader’s own teaching — you’ll want the higher tier so you can author church courses.

Most churches use both: platform courses for the universal stuff, and a few church courses for what’s unique to them.

Related

• How training courses are structured
• Plans, pricing & how billing works