Release 6.4 - 11th November

Please note there will be further scheduled maintenance on Thursday 13th November at 19:00. The platform will be down for a short period and a banner will be displayed in advance.

Custom Data Exports

In October, we were thrilled to launch our new Custom Data Exports feature in Beta! We’ve been delighted to see so many users embracing this powerful new tool.

Since the initial launch, we’ve been working hard to address feedback, fix bugs, and introduce improvements. We’re now excited to announce that Custom Data Exports is available for wider access!

A summary of the updates we will be making in this release are as follows;

• Updates to date filter layout and validation
• Updates throughout error and warning messages throughout the flow ensuring these are present and clear where needed
• Updates to validation in customise report page including field selection and clearing filters
• Various improvements to data layout within the customise report page ensuring the groupings are clear and easy to navigate
• Various improvements to export data column ordering, ensuring the columns in your csv file are exported in the order expected
• Update to Last Run Date on My Templates page – ensuring this is populated
• Minor updates to My Templates searching and sorting to ensure these are correctly displayed

For more information, or to enable this exciting new enterprise feature and enjoy effortless access to your data, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Further information on Custom Data Exports can be found here.

Apprenticeship Applications: Aim Dates Management

The first release of our Aim Dates Management feature is here!

We have restyled the form ahead of adding the programme aims for you to edit start & end dates. This page in the application will now be called "Apprenticeship Dates".

Start Dates

We have added a new question at the top of the page asking if the apprenticeship start date will be the same as the practical period start date. This is aimed for those scenarios where a learner is employed as an apprentice prior to starting their learning, allowing you to record two separate start dates. A new information popover has been added to provide further information for users on the page.

The answer to the question will default to "Yes" as we believe this will be the most common answer.

If two start dates have been entered, both dates will be displayed on the Apprenticeship Agreement and Training Plan documents. Only the "practical period start date" will be populated in the ILR.

End Dates

We have also made a change to how the "practical period end date" field behaves. At the point the "practical period start date" and working hours have been entered, we will provide a suggested "practical period end date" based on the programme design.

Previously, we automatically populated the "practical period end date" field for you. Now, we provide a suggestion under the field which can be applied or you can manually enter a different date. This change was made based on feedback from customers.

The suggest date will default to the minimum duration specified in programme build for all durations, including those under 12 months. While you could previously manually enter a duration of under 12 months following the funding rule changes, any programmes with durations of under 12 months were defaulting to a 12 month duration on this page.

OST Applications: Employment Options

We have added a new option for the employment status question in the OST application: "self-employed".

When the "self-employed" option is selected, the following child questions will be displayed:

• How long have they been self-employed?
• Self-employed start date
• Do they have a new or existing role?
• What is their job role?
• How many hours a week do they usually work?

These questions and answers will be displayed on the Application Summary document.

Please note that you will need to manually add the self-employed flag to the ILR. We will provide an update to automate this in a later release.

Bug Fixes

In this release we have fixed the following bugs:

Skills scan application tab appears to be continuously loading - We have resolved an issue affecting a small number of programmes for some customers where the skills scan appears as if it is continuously loading and does not complete the process. Where this happens, an error message will now be displayed to confirm if the loading action has failed and to re-attempt the page to load if so. This should prevent users being unsure if the page will eventually load correctly.

Users will now be informed via an error message if there has been a technical issue with the page loading.

“Complete training plan” button does not appear as expected - We have resolved an ongoing issue where certain combinations of document signing invitation and actual signature collection can result in the complete training plan button not being displayed and therefore not be able to be clicked. The button will now appear as expected and permit users to continue the application process.

Activity Library (OTJH) updates incorrectly appearing in programme builder for Apprenticeships - The behaviour of activity library updates has been modified to prevent issues where activity library updates are pushed through to the programme builder incorrectly for Apprenticeship learners. Updated OTJH for an activity library update will now only be reflected in the programme build activities tab when the user has published the activity. If an activity change is in a state of draft or awaiting approval, then the update will not be reflected in the programme build.

This fix resolves the issue for Apprenticeship programmes only. A equivalent fix for OST will follow, likely in the next planned release (Please check release notes nearer the time for confirmation).

UI Issue: Scroll option on live metrics section of the trainer’s dashboard - A minor UI issue has been resolved on the trainer’s dashboard where some users reported not being able to correctly scroll the live metrics section of the dashboard using the scroll bar (Manual scrolling with a mouse scroll wheel not affected).

Criteria not appearing when marking a submission - We have fixed a bug that some users reported seeing when they click onto an activity via notifications, then go to mark a new submission, where no criteria appear visible.

Users accessing activities requiring marking via the notification icon will now be presented with the activity criteria to mark without having to manually refresh the page.

Progress card disappearing - In specific scenarios, the Learner progress card (that shows the programme duration, activity & OTJHs progress) would disappear if a service message was also present. This issue has been resolved, and users won’t see it disappear.

Learners notified about due activities which had been deleted from programme build - There was an issue, whereby learners were being notified of activities due, when the activity had been deleted from the Programme build and propagated to their Learning Plan.

Actions marked as completed, showing up in the next Review - If a Review Action had been marked as completed, it was still showing in the next Review. We have resolved this issue, and so actions marked as completed within a Review will not show in any future Reviews.

Message threads incorrectly locking - In a specific scenario, message threads involving the Learner, Trainer and Employer were incorrectly locking. This was caused by the trainer making an edit to the Learner via the Application edit flow, which subsequently, incorrectly locked the thread. This has been resolved and threads will only lock when expected.

Activities past their due date not always flagged as overdue - In some scenarios, activities that had passed their due date did not get updated to an ‘Overdue’ status. This issue has been resolved, and moving forwards when an activity goes past its due date it will always be updated to a ‘Overdue’ status.

Unable to complete a Review if the Employer removed - If a user removed an Employer from a Review, after the Learner and Trainer had signed it, then there was no way to complete the Review. We have updated this so that if the Employer is removed, after the Learner and Trainer have signed, the Review will automatically move into a ‘Completed’ status.

LRS - we have been working on fixing issues with the LRS integration. In this release we have deployed a fix which will hopefully improve the performance, but please be aware that you may still experience some inconsistent behaviour. We will continue working on this issue.

Programme activity attachments failing - when programmes were cloned, uploaded files for activities were failing.

OST Application Document - the styling on the OST Application Summary document had been disrupted. 

Business Intelligence - Wednesday 12th October at 14:30

QAR Enhancements

We’re excited to share that our latest QAR enhancements are going live in this release!

These updates focus on linking QAR data, where possible, to the corresponding fields available in the Bud platform, giving you deeper insights and a more connected view of your learner data.

As a quick reminder, QAR is calculated from ILR files you upload into the QAR ILR Upload Portal. With this release, that data will now be enriched: wherever a learner record in Bud can be matched to the ILR data, additional information from Bud will automatically be included. This will not effect any QAR Calculations, only enrich the data visible.

Additional fields throughout the report include:

• Operations Manager slicers
• Trainer slicers and columns
• Current Bud Learning Plan Status – helping you reconcile any changes since your last ILR upload
• Predicted End Date columns
• Activity and OTJH Progress % – to help track progress for potential achievers
• Latest RAG Rating Status – offering even more insight into learner progress

These new fields have also been added to the QAR csv extracts, along with the LearningPlanId, allowing you even more flexibility to bring in and analyse Bud data alongside your QAR results.

Note: As mentioned, ILR data and Bud data are separate streams. We’ve linked records where possible, but you may still see some blanks where learners don’t appear in Bud or where discrepancies exist between your ILR files and the Bud ILR.

Standard Reports – Learners at risk of NEET

A new report has been added to the Standard Reports – Leavers Section to help track learners identified in Bud as at risk of becoming NEET. This report will show any learners flagged at being 16 or 17 at time of withdrawal and deepen into those flagged at as risk.  

BI Bug Fixes

In this release we have fixed the following BI bugs in Management Reports:

• Issue with Age band grouping showing <17 where this should be <19. This has been corrected to show the correct grouping name of <19
• Issue with the count of users with the trainer role counting users who have ever been a trainer, this has been corrected to only show user currently with the trainer role.
• Issue with Year on Year applications showing the months in the graph in alphabetical order, this has been corrected to now show them in calendar order August – July. 

Data Warehouse Fields

The following fields have been added to the datawarehouse as part of this release: