Issue 4 - Data CollectionWelcome to our 4th delivery briefing note where the emphasis is very much on learner data - what to collect, how to present it and how to avoid common pitfalls. The 31st October deadline for 2006/7 data cleansing is fast approaching and it is vitally important that all the data from our projects stands up to scrutiny. In addition to this briefing note there are a number of guides available to help you to ensure you have everything correctly recorded and cross checked, including the Individual Learner Report (ILR) guidance which is available from your LSC contact or in the useful information section in the ESF area of our website. You will also get a lot of information from appendix one of your contract to guide you. The availability of high quality consistent data will be key to projects being finalised quickly and will minimise issues as the current programme draws to a close. As always we are here to help if you have any specific issues and you should always seek the advice of your LSC contact if you have concerns about this or any other issue covered in these briefing notes. It is also worth remembering that each of our offices has a data lead who can offer additional support and guidance should it be required. Don’t forget to register for regular programme updates by logging onto www.lsc.gov.uk/news and selecting the provider, publications and initiatives options. In the meantime, please let us know if there are any other issues you would like us to feature in future briefing notes. Please email esfpr@iassmarts.com with your suggestions. Julie Fowler |
Learner data details the types of learners you have engaged and their backgrounds and, as it forms an important part of the Project Closure Report to Government Office and DWP, it must be accurate. The data comes from the individual learner reports (ILR)/ESF short records (SRs) you have been completing for every learner and entering onto our system.
To make sure that the information you provide is as complete and correct as possible, you need to cleanse the data. You can do this either through your management information system (MIS) or through data extracts from the LSC’s Provider Online system. You can also receive reports from the LSC highlighting any problems with the learner data for you to update.
The LSC’s data collection is organised into academic years because the majority of its funding is allocated to Further Education colleges. This means that contracts, like ESF, that span multiple years, must make sure the data is clean on an annual basis. We have until the end of October to cleanse the 2006/7 data.
There are three golden rules to apply when it comes to delivering data – existence, quality and consistency.
Firstly, there must be a signed ILR/SR for every learner, and additional forms to cover the aims they have been funded to complete on your contract.
Secondly, all the right data fields must be completed to the standard of the ILR specification. Ensuring that you have all the right data available is critical as missing data will impact on project closure and can affect the amount of funding you receive. It is especially important to avoid missing certain fields in the forms or just keying in the ‘unknown’ code as this will severely affect our ability to close the project and report to Government Office – ultimately putting your funding at risk.
Remember, anything that cannot be accounted for correctly could result in money being clawed back at the audit stage. If you are not sure exactly what is needed please get advice form your LSC contact as quickly as possible and refer to the ILR Specification.
It is important that you provide complete and accurate information – last minute guess work to get the job done just won’t do! Make sure you get all the information you need to complete the ILRs. Poor quality data will be rejected and could put your funding at risk, so it worth setting aside the time needed to get it right.
Please refer to your Appendix 1 for the eligibility criteria for your contract. All your learner data should align to these criteria. Ineligible learners may be removed from your project and funding recovered.
The learners experience on the project is made up of learning aims, e.g. NVQ2 or Individual Learning Plan, and each aim is loaded onto the LSC’s system. When the learner has completed each learning aim, it should be ‘closed’ online so that we can see their outcome and destination. Please do these as you go so that you don’t have hundreds to do at the end of the contract.
You can analyse your learner data by extracting the information from Provider Online into an Excel spreadsheet. Within Excel you can sort or filter the information to identify problems and then update the records either on your MIS or directly via Provider Online.
Objective 2 projects will need to provide a list of employers, their postcodes and their employees at the end of the contracts. Please make sure you maintain this information as you go, again to avoid having to do it all at the end.
It is important to ensure that there is consistency across the reports. For example the information from the ILRs should tally exactly with other data provided, i.e. the monthly return. Any anomalies will be picked up and again could impact on project closure. Learner data error reports are available that will flag inconsistencies between returns and ILRs for Objective 3.
Ultimately this work will pay off in ensuring that your projects and the programme as a whole can be closed off without any risk of monies having to be returned to Europe. This will be great news for projects and for the future programming allocation as a whole. If projects are careless about the learner details then we are not properly reporting the excellent impact this programme has had on the region, which could affect resources paid out for this programme and the allocation we receive from Europe in the next.
We are here to help so please get in touch if you need more support to help you through the reporting process.