# Professional Certificate in Talent Acquisition

Canonical URL: https://mtfinstitute.com/programs/talent-acquisition-sourcing-screening-interview-offer-handoff/
Official publisher: MTF Institute of Management, Technology and Finance
Language: English
Topics: Responsible AI, Talent Acquisition, Candidate Sourcing, Candidate Screening, Structured Interviews, Recruiting, Offer Management, ATS

> A practical online professional certificate for the focused talent-acquisition cycle from approved role intake and sourcing through screening, structured interviews, offer support and accepted-candidate handoff.

## Program facts

- Format: 100% online, self-paced English lessons with fictional recruiting cases, templates and AI practice
- Recommended duration: Complete within one month; timing depends on study pace and depth of practical assignments.
- Study time: Estimated 36-50 hours across 20 core lessons, 20 primary professional artifacts and one separate applied capstone
- Tuition: €10
- Credential: Certificate of completion: Professional Certificate in Talent Acquisition
- Enrollment: https://edu.gtf.pt/course/view.php?id=79


## Professional Certificate in Talent Acquisition

A practical online professional certificate for the focused talent-acquisition cycle from approved role intake and sourcing through screening, structured interviews, offer support and accepted-candidate handoff.

## Curriculum

### Module 1 — Role Control, Intake and Sourcing

This module opens the recruiting cycle with ownership, authority and evidence. Learners first control a mixed work queue, then turn an approved need into a usable intake and translate requirements into observable evidence. The sequence gives a beginner a safe answer to four questions: What is the task? What facts are authoritative? What may I decide? Who owns the next action?

- **Lesson 1: The Talent Acquisition Role and the Controlled Work Queue** — Determine what the Talent Acquisition Specialist owns, what needs approval and what must be escalated when new recruiting work arrives. Primary deliverable: Recruiting Work Queue and Decision-Rights Board with request, approval state, priority, owner, next action, deadline, decision class and escalation route.
- **Lesson 2: From Approved Need to a Clear Role Intake** — Turn an approved hiring need into a clear role intake that another recruiter can act on. Primary deliverable: Role Intake and Calibration Brief with business outcome, responsibilities, minimums, preferences, level/location assumptions, process, service targets, owners and open questions.
- **Lesson 3: Job-Related Criteria and the Skills Evidence Map** — Convert job requirements into observable evidence that can be collected consistently across screening and interviews. Primary deliverable: Criteria-to-Evidence Map with capability, job relevance, acceptable indicators, alternative evidence, evidence stage, anchor and escalation question.
- **Lesson 4: Sourcing Strategy, Search Logic and Talent Mapping** — Build a sourcing approach that connects role evidence to approved channels and a measurable search hypothesis. Primary deliverable: Sourcing Strategy and Talent Map with capability concepts, related titles, adjacent backgrounds, channels, original search strings, assumptions, sample review and qualified-yield measure.
- **Lesson 5: Candidate Outreach and Contact Ownership** — Contact a potential candidate truthfully and respectfully with controlled follow-up. Primary deliverable: Outreach and Contact-Control Sequence with audience evidence, truthful proposition, approved channel, owner, contact history, follow-up interval, suppression rule and closure message.

### Module 2 — Screening, Pipeline and Candidate Control

This module turns candidate material into comparable evidence without hiding uncertainty. Learners compare applications with adopted criteria, conduct a structured recruiter screen and maintain a usable pipeline record. Candidate status communication is treated as an operating control: each message must agree with the system record, have an owner and leave a human route for questions.

- **Lesson 6: Evidence-Based Resume and Application Screening** — Compare a resume or application with adopted criteria while separating evidence, missing information and inference. Primary deliverable: Screening Evidence Grid and Disposition Note with criterion, source evidence, evidence status, human conclusion, reason and escalation.
- **Lesson 7: The Structured Recruiter Screen** — Conduct a structured recruiter screen that collects comparable job-related evidence and leaves a usable note. Primary deliverable: Recruiter Screen Guide and Evidence Note with opening, equivalent core questions, permitted probes, candidate questions, criterion-linked notes, conclusion and next step.
- **Lesson 8: ATS Pipeline, Stage and Next-Action Control** — Maintain an active candidate pipeline so stage, owner, evidence and next action agree. Primary deliverable: Pipeline Status and Ageing Register with candidate, stage-entry time, evidence reference, owner, next action, due date, communication status and exception flag.
- **Lesson 9: Candidate Communication by Stage** — Plan and send accurate candidate updates across recruiting stages, including delay, decline and closure. Primary deliverable: Candidate Communication Service Map with trigger, owner, approved content, channel, locally set maximum silence interval, exception and closure record.
- **Lesson 10: Recruiting Exceptions, Integrity and Specialist Escalation** — Recognise a recruiting exception, contain the affected action and route a decision-ready escalation to the authorised owner. Primary deliverable: Recruiting Exception Triage and Escalation Pack with trigger, verified facts, containment, decision requested, restricted-data location, owner, candidate communication and closure evidence.

### Module 3 — Structured Interviews and Selection Evidence

This module designs the interview as a controlled evidence process rather than an improvised conversation. Learners map criteria across stages, create questions and anchors, and prepare candidates and interviewers for a fair, usable event. Technology, access and format information are checked against fictional local policy; candidate support has a named human route.

- **Lesson 11: Structured Interview Architecture and Evidence Coverage** — Turn adopted criteria into an interview sequence with clear evidence ownership and decision rights. Primary deliverable: Interview Evidence-Coverage Plan with stages, assigned criteria, interviewer roles, evidence method, sequence, decision owner and missing-evidence route.
- **Lesson 12: Interview Questions and Scoring Anchors** — Write job-related interview questions and scoring anchors that distinguish stronger, partial and missing evidence. Primary deliverable: Structured Question and Anchor Bank with criterion, core question, permitted probes, evidence to listen for, anchored levels and prohibited inference.
- **Lesson 13: Candidate and Interviewer Readiness** — Prepare candidates and interviewers for a structured interview so format, expectations, access and records are controlled. Primary deliverable: Interview Readiness and Logistics Pack with schedule, participants, format, preparation message, support route, assigned criteria, technology check, scorecard deadline and contingency.
- **Lesson 14: Scorecard Evidence Quality and Human Review** — Audit interview notes and scorecards for criterion-linked evidence before a debrief. Primary deliverable: Scorecard Evidence Audit with completeness, source observation, criterion link, anchor use, unsupported inference, conflict, correction owner and debrief readiness.
- **Lesson 15: Evidence-Based Debrief and Selection Support** — Facilitate a criterion-by-criterion debrief and present a defensible selection recommendation to the authorised decision owner. Primary deliverable: Debrief and Selection Recommendation Record with criteria, evidence summary, disagreements, missing evidence, recommendation, decision owner, authorised outcome and candidate next action.

### Module 4 — Offer, Handoff and Process Improvement

This module protects the last part of the recruiting cycle. Learners reconcile approvals before an offer, communicate only confirmed facts, route candidate requests without implying approval and transfer an accepted candidate through a minimum-necessary, acknowledged handoff. The recruiter closes recruiting ownership at that point and does not deliver onboarding.

- **Lesson 16: Offer Approval and Terms Reconciliation** — Turn an authorised selection decision into an approval-ready offer request without inventing terms or bypassing owners. Primary deliverable: Offer Approval and Terms-Control Brief with candidate/requisition identity, decision evidence, proposed-terms source, required approvals, contingencies, discrepancies and communication authority.
- **Lesson 17: Authorised Offer Communication and Candidate Questions** — Communicate confirmed offer facts, manage candidate questions and route a requested change without implying approval. Primary deliverable: Offer Communication and Negotiation-Control Log with confirmed message, candidate question/request, delegated response boundary, approver, deadline, final decision and reconciled communication.
- **Lesson 18: Accepted-Candidate Handoff and Recruiting Close** — Transfer an accepted candidate to the named downstream owner with reconciled facts, open items and acknowledged ownership. Primary deliverable: Accepted-Candidate Handoff Record with approved and accepted terms, acceptance evidence, condition status, owners, candidate message, system status, necessary data transferred, receipt and next checkpoint.
- **Lesson 19: Funnel, Ageing and Source-Quality Review** — Diagnose one recruiting-funnel constraint using clear stage definitions, denominators, data-quality checks and cautious hypotheses. Primary deliverable: Recruiting Funnel Diagnostic with stage definitions, numerator, denominator, conversion, ageing, source qualified yield, data caveat, plausible causes, bounded action, owner and follow-up measure.
- **Lesson 20: Responsible Recruiting Automation and Process Improvement** — Map a recruiting automation or workflow change so human decisions, candidate notice, evidence, exceptions and rollback remain visible. Primary deliverable: Human-Controlled Recruiting Automation Map with task, authorised input, system action or recommendation, source record, human owner, candidate notice, exception route, retained record, monitoring and rollback.

## Applied Capstone

Move Northstar's finalist from selection evidence to accepted-candidate handoff through one Offer Decision and Accepted-Candidate Handoff Brief.

## Related MTF resources

- [Talent Acquisition Work in the United States](https://mtfinstitute.com/insights/talent-acquisition-united-states-120-vacancies-2026/)
- [Professional Certificate: HR Manager | HR Generalist](https://mtfinstitute.com/programs/hr-manager-generalist/)
- [Executive Certificate: HR Business Partner | HRBP](https://mtfinstitute.com/programs/hr-business-partner/)
- [Talent Acquisition in 2026](https://mtfinstitute.com/insights/talent-acquisition-2026-ai-skills-evidence-hiring-integrity/)

## Frequently asked questions

### Who is this talent acquisition course for?

It is designed for beginners, career movers and developing professionals preparing for recruiter, talent acquisition specialist, recruiting coordinator or sourcing roles. No prior access to an applicant tracking system is required.

### What practical work will I complete?

Every lesson produces one reusable workplace artifact, including a recruiting work queue, intake brief, skills evidence map, sourcing plan, screening record, recruiter-screen guide, interview scorecard, debrief brief, offer reconciliation and accepted-candidate handoff. The capstone produces one Offer Decision and Accepted-Candidate Handoff Brief.

### How is this different from the HR Generalist course?

This course is deliberately narrower. It follows one approved requisition through sourcing, screening, structured interviews, offer support and accepted-candidate handoff. Broader HR Generalist responsibilities such as payroll, benefits, employee relations, performance management, retention, workforce strategy, organisation design, succession and onboarding delivery are outside scope.

### Does the course teach hiring decisions?

It teaches evidence preparation, structured assessment and decision support. Final hiring approval, compensation approval, legal advice and specialist investigations remain with authorised people and functions.

### How is AI used in the course?

AI is treated as an optional, bounded drafting or checking aid. A human verifies evidence, protects candidate data, checks for unsupported inferences and bias, preserves decision rights and approves every external communication or system action. Every activity also includes a non-AI route.

### What is included in the Role Starter Pack?

The course includes a Model Job Description, an ATS-friendly Resume Template with a clearly fictional example, and a Model Role SOP / Operating Playbook for supervised local adaptation.

### What evidence supports the course design and what certificate do I receive?

The curriculum is grounded in original MTF Institute analysis of 120 current United States vacancies, a separate current-trends study and an open Zenodo record. After completing the required activities and capstone, you receive the named MTF Institute professional course-completion certificate.

## Professional education notice

Professional courses and certificates are taught under the terms of paragraph 3 of article 3 of Decree-Law No. 474/2010, published on July 8th by the Portuguese Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity. The professional programs are related to professional / business education and are provided without official recognition (certificates are provided at a professional level and not academic degrees or diplomas and do not confer academic credits).

## Citation guidance

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