Unique Learner Numbers for schools in Wales
February 2, 2012 in Learning Records Service by Admin
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
I may be missing something here but so far the LRS has been of little benefit to us, with the exception of our OLS contract, because school leaver GCSE results are not in the LRS at the time we need them – a few days after GCSE results day. As for Adults, again very few adults have previously undertaken QCF qualifications and as far as I am aware the LRS is still only being populated by college ILR results which in the majority of cases only have full qualifications (units are still being trialled), so at best we can only confirm some of their previous attainments and only that if they have recently undertaken a qualification. I have to say it has been successful for OLS and has helped us manage offender learners who have moved between prisons – although again I suspect there is a high level of duplicate ULNs within that population; but that’s another story.
I think there is a long way to go before the LRS can really be considered a success.
Story over on FEWeek that gives some rather shocking numbers about the usage of LRS:
http://www.feweek.co.uk/2012/02/03/more-than-14m-learner-accounts-unused/
eeeh, I remember when we got to the millionth ULN…
Also, any savings and efficiencies that could be gained are VASTLY outweighed by the amount of time and effort put into getting and maintaining ULNs by providers. Now this was always accepted as an upfront cost to providers, it’s just the lag time to getting the benefits looks like it’s going to be significantly longer than expected. Until the three big english exam boards are actively supporting this we’ll get nowhere.
I quote ‘In England, the FE sector is now beginning to see the full benefits of the introduction of ULNs in English schools back in 2007′.
The LRS continually make such comments and seem to believe if they say it enough times, it must be true. It isn’t.
The results aren’t timely enough for enrolment and, incredibly, most of the large Awarding Bodies don’t publish to the PLR anyway! How can the system be compulsory for Colleges but not for Awarding Bodies?
The underlying idea is great but unfortunately I find it hard to believe it will ever work properly.
Thanks for this feedback – much appreciated!
Regarding johncarr and steveh comments, and your points about exam boards/awarding bodies: a number of Awarding Organisations are currently participating in a trial with the LRS, which will run until the end of March 2012. For more information see http://www.learningrecordsservice.org.uk/newsandupdates/news/ao_trial.htm