As you may be aware, we value the input from professionals working with FE learner data and software. Consequently, among other things, we host regular advisory group meetings for college staff, data users, employer responsive learning providers, adult safeguarded learning providers, software suppliers and own software writers.

These advisory groups work with us to improve sector information systems and where possible avoid, identify and resolve information and data issues. Colleagues from other agencies, such as the Data Service and the Skills Funding Agency, also often join in with members’ discussions or present to the groups.

Members of the groups represent organisations who return or use individualised learner record (ILR) data, or are involved in supplying or writing software to collect ILR data. They tend to be the staff responsible for providing or using data and/or management information (MI) within each organisation.

Hosting the groups enables us to seek expert and informed opinion and advice from colleagues involved in data collection and transformation. Each group meets around three times a year, to discuss information and data related topics such as data collecting, interpreting, reporting, quality and use; software; audit issues; and reducing bureaucracy.

Making changes

With the move to a single ILR and the plans for a Single Adult Skills budget, we are intending to make changes to a couple of our groups, to reflect provider type rather than funding provision. Starting in March, the Employer Responsive and Learner Responsive advisory groups will be replaced by a group for colleges and another group catering for all other training organisations. The first meetings for these new groups will be held at our HQ in Coventry on the following dates: 

• 15 March – College Group
• 29 March – Training Organisation Group

Later in the year we are also planning to introduce occasional themed meetings. These will be open to all members of the advisory groups and will cover topics such as foundation learning and course information.

You can find out more about all of our advisory groups on the information authority website

If you want more information, or would like to join any of the groups, please email the information authority

This week’s news round up

• The Data Service has released an updated version of the Learner Information Suite (LIS) v19.02.015. This release has fixed the issue relating to the calculation of Adult Learner Responsive Funding. If you have any issues with the LIS please contact the Service Desk on 0870 2670001 or email the Service Desk.
• The Provider Funding Report (PFR) functionality within the Online Data Collection system is now back online, following a fix to the issue with the Adult Skills Budget funding calculation. Providers can now request PFRs.
• The Skills Funding Agency is in the process of compiling a collection of FAQs on the Agency website which you may find of interest, following questions raised by providers at a series of Skills Investment Strategy briefings.
• Geoff Russell (Skills Funding Agency CEO) and Peter Lauener (YPLA CEO) gave evidence at the Public Accounts Committee on Monday: “Reducing Bureaucracy in Further Education” – a transcript of the meeting is now available.

All the best
Greta

The Welsh Government Department for Education and Skills (DfES) made a landmark decision this month, when the Minister for Education and Skills, Leighton Andrews, approved the full implementation of the Unique Learner Number (ULN) and Personal Learning Record (PLR) for learners aged 14 and over in Wales. He also agreed feasibility work for the inclusion of Welsh qualifications data in the PLR.

In fact, over 400,000 learners in Wales already have ULNs, largely as a result of the roll-out of the service to the further education (FE) sector in Wales.  Now learners from schools in Wales will approach FE already armed with a permanent online record of their verified achievements and qualifications.

In England, the FE sector is now beginning to see the full benefits of the introduction of ULNs in English schools back in 2007. These ULNs allow FE providers to, for example, confirm that course entry requirements have been met, or to check details of completed units contributing toward skills qualifications. As the PLR continues to build throughout a learner’s lifetime, the benefits to training providers, awarding organisations, advisers and employers, as well as to learners themselves, will continue to accrue.

The savings and efficiencies gained by accessing shared information about individual learning and qualifications from a single secure online source are well recognised. Now, these benefits will become increasingly available to FE learning providers and awarding organisations working with learners from schools in Wales.

For more information, visit the LRS website.

Kind regards
Alison

Hi Folks

Just to let you know that the Provider Funding Report (PFR) functionality within the Online Data Collection system is now back online, following a fix to the issue with the Adult Skills Budget funding calculation. Providers can now request PFRs.

As announced today, we are aware of the current issue with the calculation of Adult Learner Responsive funding in LIS Reports and are currently working to fix this. This problem is restricted to LIS 19.02 funding calculation only; it does not affect funding calculations in OLDC.

In order for the Data Service to address any issues you may have with any of our systems please can you log any concerns with our Service Desk on 0870 2670001 in the first instance.

regards

Fazia

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?

No  it’s a Learning Records Service (LRS) Super User, and every learning provider registered with the LRS must have at least one.

The role of the Super User is central to working with the LRS portal, which is why appointing a Super User is one of the first steps in the registration process.

The Super User has specific responsibility for operational systems management, including access rights, and for overseeing data protection. The role is so crucial that the LRS recommends organisations appoint at least three Super Users, so that access to the portal can be unlocked at any time.

How many Super Users do you have?  Over time, and the service has been in place now since 2007, individual roles and responsibilities within an organisation change. Appointed Super Users can become unable to fulfil their roles, because they have changed jobs, perhaps, or moved on.

As a result, FE providers may leave themselves vulnerable to being unable to access the LRS portal easily, or even at all, because they no longer have a fully functioning Super User team.

Ask yourself, as you read this, who are the LRS Super Users in your organisation?.  If the answer isn’t obvious, it’s worth asking the question. If one of your original Super Users is no longer in place, it’s essential that you appoint a replacement immediately.

To register a change of Super User, please go to the LRS Website. 

Kind regards
Alison

New Employment Outcomes Guidance

Following my post on the Job Outcome Incentive Payment (OIP) Fund at the start of January, a couple of you requested some clarification around recording ‘employment outcomes’ in the 2011/12 ILR. I am pleased to be able to report that the Skills Funding Agency has now released additional guidance on this topic, which is as follows: 

If the Adult Skills Budget learner is in receipt of JSA or ESA(WRAG), or is part of the wider offer to unemployed individuals on a state benefit who needs help into work, a successful job outcome should be recorded in the Employment Outcome field where the learner is in employment for four weeks or more and if they were in receipt of JSA or ESA (WRAG), but no longer receive it.

Since no direct funding is associated with specific numbers of job outcomes in Adult Skills Budget in 2011/12 this data will not be audited by the Agency.

As part of the development for 2012/13 it is expected that providers will be starting to develop processes and systems to capture job outcomes, which would include the development of a self-certification process for learners gaining employment as evidence of getting a job.

Nested Qualifications Guidance

In response to recent discussions on provider forums we have reissued the guidance that was agreed by Ofsted in August 2010, about the use of nested qualifications in curriculum planning.

Examples of incorrect use of nested qualifications are being added to the guidance. Ofsted are also reissuing guidance to their inspectors regarding the use of nested qualifications, which emphasises that a learner-centred approach should be taken in all cases.

Publication of Outputs on FE Choices

Performance indicator scores for 2010/11 were published on 26 January on the FE Choices website, which is part of the Further Education Public Information (FEPI) framework (formerly known as the Framework for Excellence).

The FE choices website enables learners and providers to compare performance information about all further education providers that receive government funds. Information is provided about organisations that offer academic and vocational subjects, apprenticeships, and training on and off the job.

More information about FE Choices can be found on the Skills Funding Agency website

This week’s news round up

• The latest issue of Inform (issue 56) is out now
• An updated version (2.01) of the 2011/12 ILR Appendix A Collections Timetable is now on our website – dates remain the same, but we have changed the colour coding in response to providers’ requests
• The papers and presentations from our Software Supplier Group meeting on 23 January are now on our website

All the best
Greta

Hello blog reader and welcome to my latest post. As you can see from the title, this week I am going to be taking a brief look at the next ILR specification, but before that, for those of you who are new to the world of further education (FE) learner data, I should just explain that the ILR is a collection of data about learners in the FE sector, which is gathered by learning providers and processed by the Data Service.

The ILR specification defines what data is collected for each academic year, from 1 August – 31 July. This is where we come in. Any changes to the data collected in the ILR or the collection arrangements must be approved by the information authority board.

The amendments to next year’s (2012/13) ILR have been approved and were published on our website last month. One of the main changes is that all ILR returns for 2012/13 must be in XML format. The Data Service will continue to make the Learner Information Suite (LIS) available to all providers in 2012/13 but the LIS will no longer include a conversion facility to produce XML files, so providers are expected to have the facility to create them without support.

However, the Data Service recognises that a small number of providers may not initially have a system capable of producing an XML file and they will make a temporary alternative method for sending ILR data available to these providers. In 2011/12, this was the provider online system (POL). The arrangements for 2012/13 are still to be confirmed. It is expected that these providers would typically have less than 500 learners.

Your XML ILR files must arrive by specified dates though the year, (which will be published in Appendix A of the 2012/13 spec) but it will only be necessary to send an ILR file if there have been any changes or additions to the learner records since the last transmission was made.

For more details of changes to the spec visit our website to view the 2012/13 ILR Specification

We will be publishing version 2 of the 2012/13 specification, which will include the validation (previously business) rules, towards the end of February.

This week’s news round up: 

• Our Software Supplier Group meet on Monday 23 January in Coventry
• A fully searchable 2011/12 ILR specification, with the facility to save your favourite pages for quick reference, is now available on our website
• Reminder: the 2011/12 R06 ILR return is due in on 06 February 2012

All the best
Greta

In this week’s blog the Skills Funding Agency has asked us to let you know about a couple of opportunities coming up for you to get involved in supporting the further education (FE) sector. The Agency has provided the information below, inviting you to develop a sector survey, or contribute to the further development of the Provider Data Self-Assessment Tool. Think you might be interested in one, or both opportunities?  Then read on…

 Skills Funding Agency seeks sector engagement for Provider Access Project

 The Skills Funding Agency needs sector representatives to attend a three-hour workshop in Coventry on 26 January 2012 (11am – 2pm) to support the Provider Access Project in shaping a sector engagement survey framework.

Background to the Provider Access Project

Following a commitment made by the Skills Funding Agency to the FE sector and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Provider Access Project will enable providers to access their contract information directly.

As the Agency is seeking to deliver this collaboratively with the sector, as a tool for the sector, it recognises that it is crucial to have strong engagement with the sector throughout the duration of the project. The Agency, therefore, is planning to launch a survey aimed at the FE sector (colleges, training organisations, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the third sector, to gauge views on key topic areas such as:

• Scope of the project
• Benefits of the project to the FE sector
• Planned requirements and areas of delivery
• Suggested priorities
• Sector involvement  

Over the next few weeks, the Agency will be designing a draft framework for the survey. In order to ensure that the survey is fit for purpose it needs involvement from sector representatives to help shape its design.

For any further information, please email Anita Holcroft

Data Self-Assessment Tool – future development sessions

The Skills Funding Agency will be holding three divisional Data Self-Assessment Tool (DSAT) Technical User Group sessions. The aim of these meetings is to bring together internal and external DSAT stakeholders to contribute to and inform the future development of DSATs.

• South – 8 February 2012 at the KPMG offices in London
• Central – 16 February 2012 at the Agency’s National Office in Coventry
• North – date and venue will be confirmed in due course.

Places are limited to 25 attendees at each venue. Please email Natalie McIntyre to register your attendance by 23 January 2012, confirming the name of the provider you will be representing and the meeting you will be attending.

This week’s news round up:

• Reminder: 2010/11 SL05 returns deadline is 16 January 2011
• You can check your FE Public Information Framework (formerly Framework for Excellence) data on the Provider Gateway and have until Thursday 19 January to submit any comments about your 2010/11 scores.
• The Data Service will be releasing the Learner Information Suite (LIS) v19.02 later this month. Further details are available on the Data Service website.

All the best
Greta

As we start the new year we thought we’d take a look back over 2011, to see which issues have been cropping up in conversations in our advisory groups and write a blog post or two around these topics…

Towards the end of last year we became aware that there were a number of providers unsure of how job outcome incentive payments (OIPs) are paid and exactly what is expected of them in 2011/12. So, we thought it might be useful to point people towards the Skills Funding Agency’s OIP guidance.

There have been three documents published so far that include information you may find helpful. You will find the bulk of the detail about how providers are being paid for employment outcomes for 2011/12 in paragraphs 123 to 134 of version 1.1 of the 2011/12 Adult Skills Budget Funding Requirements.

Other relevant information can be found in paragraphs 24 to 32 of the Skills Funding Agency Guidance Note eight and in Update (issue 86), the Agency’s weekly round up of information and news for the further education sector.

In essence, the guidance to date states that OIPs for colleges are paid from within their allocation – no additional claims are required. Private training providers use the Training Provider Statement (TPS) to claim 2.5% of their monthly allocation. All providers are asked to record job outcomes in the Employment Outcome field in the ILR. We are working with the Agency to clarify the guidance around recording job outcomes.

If there is a topic you would like us to blog about please leave us a comment and let us know.

This week’s news round up:

The Chair of the information authority, Geoff Hall, has been awarded a knighthood in the 2012 New Year’s Honour’s List. Geoff, formerly Principal and Chief Executive of New College Nottingham, received the honour of Knight Bachelor for services to further education.

John Perks, Head of the information authority, will be speaking at the Association of Colleges MIS Managers Network meeting in Shrewsbury on Tuesday 10 January

The Data Service will be publishing the end of year 2010/11 Employer Responsive (Period 15) Qualification Success Rate (QSR) and Minimum Level of Performance (MLP) reports on the Provider Gateway on Thursday 12 January.

All the best
Greta

On 16 November 2010 the Government published two documents which set out a new strategy for further education and skills (FE), Skills for Sustainable Growth and Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth. These skills and investment strategy documents set out the Government’s vision for reform of the further education and skills system: to increase the participation of 16-24 year olds in education, training and work, while reducing the FE resource budget by 25% over the next couple of years.

The documents cover wide areas of reform within the sector, but there was one thread in Skills for Sustainable Growth that caught my eye, which deals with our main area of interest, data. In chapter four of the executive summary of the skills strategy document Skills for Sustainable Growth the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) state their commitment to “…simplify systems and processes…” an aspect of the FE reforms also mentioned by John Hayes in his speech to Warwickshire College in Rugby this summer. In reference to streamlining monitoring arrangements, he said that BIS are seeking, “to make your relationship with the Government and our agencies less onerous.”

Now, while we’d like to think that you don’t find your dealings with us at all onerous, we do realise that you are all bearing the ‘data burden’. That’s why we are constantly looking for ways to improve the use of FE data and reduce bureaucracy, in particular by reducing the burden of the ILR. Over the last six years we stopped the steady year-on-year increase of fields in the ILR and are continually working to take out unnecessary fields wherever possible, reducing the total so far by around 15%

So you’ll understand why we were pleased to see that not only has the data thread continued in New Challenges, New Chances – the further education and skills system reform plan published on 1 December, following a consultation on FE provision for 19+ – but that in chapter nine we have been tasked to continue providing ‘a robust challenge process…that only allows change where it can clearly be demonstrated as necessary to support the effective delivery and development of the sector.’ 

We have also been asked to report on the progress of government plans to change data collections and systems, where it will benefit effective provision, and will publish an assessment on the efficiency of and burden from data collections in 2011/12 and 2014/15.

In a further step to streamline systems, we will work with BIS, in consultation with key stakeholders, to publish a road map for how to deliver better data sharing across the sector in the spring.

There is already movement towards simplifying and reducing data collected across the sector. In 2010/11 a single budget for Adult Learner Responsive and 19+ Employer Responsive provision was introduced for all colleges (except those performing poorly) and the requirement to complete Summary Statements of Activity was removed. We hope that our contributions in this area will help to identify more opportunities to significantly reduce the data burden across the FE sector.

This week’s news round up

• Reminder: 2010/11 SL05 returns deadline is 16 January 2011
• The provider guide to working with provider funding reports (PFRs) for 2011/12 is now on our website
• The outputs from the Learner Responsive Group meeting at the end of November are now on our website
• The information authority office will be closed from Monday 26 December and will reopen on Tuesday 03 January 2012.
• And finally, as a confused Santa inputs a billion delivery location postcodes to the ILR, we wish you Happy Holidays and hope you all enjoy a festive break from data entry!

All the best
Greta

Hello blog reader and welcome to my first blog post for the information authority. I am working at the information authority as a Community Facilitator and it’s my job to manage the authority’s website, this community and our social media activities.

As you probably know, we are making use of a number of social media channels at the moment, this blog, the feconnect forums and Twitter, where most of our followers are further education (FE) colleges, training providers and other organisations connected with FE. One of the great things about Twitter is that, with a little help, we can add value to our tweets by reaching out beyond our followers to a wider audience. This was demonstrated recently when the Association of Colleges re-tweeted our tweet about the 2012/13 ILR spec (which is now available on our website) to its 2000+ followers (thanks AoC).

But, we’d also like to be able to use Twitter to talk to people at the FE coalface, managing learner records, but there don’t seem to be many of you about. As far as we can tell there are only a handful of you following us at the moment. I wonder if that’s because of your organisations’ social media policy, or maybe you just don’t like Twitter? Then again we do have a number of other communications channels, our RSS feeds, web alerts and email so perhaps you don’t see the need, as you’re quite happy using one or more of these.

I’d love to hear what you think about Twitter, so please feel free to comment and if you would like to swell the ranks of our MIS followers click on the link to follow us on Twitter if you have an account, or visit the Twitter Help Centre to find out how to get started.

This week’s news round up

• The Data Service has just published the 2010/11 End of Year Learner Responsive (LR05) Qualification Success Rate (QSR) and Minimum Levels of Performance (MLP) reports. These reports are available to download from the Provider Gateway
• The 2012/13 individualised learner record (ILR) specification is now available to download from our website.
• Reminder: the R05 ILR return is due in on 06 January 2012
• And finally, don’t forget about our festive tips for data managers on our website every day this month until Friday 23 December.