What I have:
I have three tables with the following fields (not all inclusive):
tblPERSONAL
-EmployeeNumber (PK)
tblTRAINING_DESC
-CourseID (PK)
-CourseName
tblTRAINING_DATA
-TrainingID (PK)
-EmployeeNumber (FK)
-CourseID (FK)
-CompletionDate
What I am trying to do:
Not all employees have been to all courses (obviously). However, I am trying to include a text box for specific courses on a subform (subfTRAINING). Currently all are displayed in a datasheet.
My reasoning for doing this? There are literally hundreds of courses available within my organization. Some of which are a one-time deal (complete the course once and you are done) and some require annual recertification. It is for the annual-recertification courses I am trying to do this, as all my organization is concerned with is the most current date.
The problem:
Duplicate entries are being created by my clerks in error. For example: John Doe goes to Course 1, which requires annual recertification. When John goes back to Course 1, it is erroneously entered as a second instance of the course instead of just updating the date in the table.
If Course 1 appeared as a text box and not in the datasheet, the clerk would not be able to create a duplicate entry, thus solving the problem. I hesitate to have Course 1 as a field in tblPERSONNAL, as that would go against normalization rules.
I am completely open to any help you would be willing to give.
Thank you in advance for your time and help.