Managing Qualification Exemptions in Enrolment

Managing Qualification Exemptions — Unified Exemption Behaviour and Automatic ILR Handling

Overview

Prior to this release, exempting a non-functional skills qualification required trainers to individually exempt every unit within that qualification before the aim could be removed from the ILR — and even then, removing the aim from the ILR was a separate manual step. Functional skills qualifications already supported a single-step exemption action that handled ILR removal automatically.

This release brings non-functional skills qualifications into line with that behaviour. Trainers can now exempt an entire qualification in one action, and the ILR is updated automatically — saving time and removing the risk of the learning plan and ILR falling out of sync.

Exempting an Entire Qualification

From the Set Learning Plan Exemptions page during enrolment or the edit flow:

  1. Open the qualification edit page for a non-functional skills qualification.
  2. Click Exempt this qualification (shown alongside the qualification title when the qualification is not fully exempt).
  3. In the modal, enter a reason for exemption and tick the confirmation checkbox.
  4. Click Exempt this qualification to confirm.

When confirmed:

  • The exemption reason is recorded against the qualification and applied to every unit within it, overwriting any existing unit-level reasons.
  • All units are marked as exempt.
  • The aim is automatically removed from the learner's ILR record (see ILR Handling below).

Note: The "Exempt this qualification" action is only available for non-functional skills qualifications. Functional skills continue to use their existing exemption flow, which is unchanged.

 

Exemption States

A qualification can be in one of three exemption states.

Not exempt No units are exempt. The aim is present in the ILR. The "Exempt this qualification" button is available.

Partially exempt At least one unit is exempt but at least one unit is not. The aim remains in the ILR. The enrolment page displays the total unit count alongside the number of exemptions, highlighted in red. The "Exempt this qualification" button remains available and can be used to exempt the qualification in full at any point.

Fully exempt All units are exempt. The aim is removed from the ILR automatically. The button changes to Remove exemption from this qualification.

Routes to Full Exemption

There are two ways a qualification can become fully exempt:

  • Qualification-level action — clicking "Exempt this qualification" and completing the modal. A single exemption reason is applied to the qualification and cascaded to all units at once.
  • Unit-by-unit — individually exempting every unit within the qualification. Once all units have been exempted this way, the qualification is considered fully exempt. Each unit retains its own individual exemption reason; no overarching qualification reason is recorded.

In both cases the aim is removed from the ILR and the button changes to "Remove exemption from this qualification."

ILR Handling

The ILR is updated automatically based on the exemption state of the qualification at the point of Training Plan sign-up:

  • Fully exempt — the aim is removed from the learner's ILR record. There is no need to make any manual changes to the ILR.
  • Partially exempt or not exempt — the aim remains in the ILR as normal.

This mirrors the long-standing behaviour for functional skills, ensuring consistent handling across all aim types.

If a qualification is later un-exempted (see below), the aim is automatically reinstated in the ILR on the next generation — again with no manual intervention required.

Removing an Exemption

Removing a full exemption

From the qualification edit page, click Remove exemption from this qualification. The modal shows the current exemption reason recorded against the qualification. On confirmation:

  • All unit exemptions are cleared.
  • All exemption reasons are removed.
  • The qualification returns to a not-exempt state.
  • On next ILR generation, the aim is reinstated with its default details.

Removing exemption from individual units within a fully exempt qualification

You can also remove exemptions from individual units rather than the whole qualification. If at least one unit remains exempt after doing so, the qualification moves from fully exempt to partially exempt:

  • The aim is reinstated in the ILR on next generation.
  • The page shows the remaining unit exemption count in red.
  • The "Exempt this qualification" button reappears.

Removing the exemption from the final remaining exempt unit returns the qualification to fully not-exempt.

Relationship to Functional Skills Exemptions

This release brings non-functional skills qualifications into line with the exemption experience that functional skills have supported for some time. The exemption flow, ILR behaviour, and status display now work identically regardless of aim type, giving trainers a single consistent process across all qualifications on a learning plan.

 

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