Answers to recent questions

This page lists recent questions-and-answers relating to ITR and its implementation. Note that the most recent item is at the top.

Achieved Unit Standard Number not completing in ITR (27 January 2012)

An ITO reported a Unit Standard Number as achieved to NZQA, which has since been added to the Learner’s RoA.  However, the reported Unit Standard Version Number is different to the Unit Standard Version Number in the Learner’s enrolment.  This means the ITR will not complete the enrolment. What can I do to correct this?

The "date completed" of the achieved Unit Standard Number should be after the enrolment Participation Start Date. The ITO can submit an “UpdateSimpleEnrolment” or “UpdateComplexMordernApprenticeship” message to change the Unit Standard Version Number the Learner is enrolled in to match the Unit Standard Version Number that has already been reported to NZQA.

When reporting Unit Standards as achieved to NZQA, it is best practice to check whether the Unit Standard Version Number to be reported is the same as the Unit Standard Version Number of the Learner’s enrolment. ITO’s can request and retrieve  a Learner’s enrolment details in the ITR using the “FetchTertiaryPerformanceData” messages. Refer to Section 6 of the ITR Schema document.

I have submitted an enrolment for a modern apprenticeship to the ITR but receive Error 42520: Only one enrolment for this learner can be funded from the Modern Apprenticeship fund. What does this Error 42520 mean?

A Learner cannot be enrolled in a modern apprenticeship if another enrolment exists as a Learner can only be enrolled in one modern apprenticeship at any given time.

This error may occur in the following scenarios

1. The Learner has a current enrolment with an ITO, therefore cannot be enrolled in a modern apprenticeship
2. The enrolment and participation start date is in conflict of a previous enrolment in a period of time where this particular enrolment was active. Re-enrol with an enrolment and participation start date that is later than the end date of the previous enrolment.

For example, previous enrolment has been withdrawn/completed on 01/01/2011. New enrolment has a participation start date of 02/01/2011.

Can I update the withdrawal date of a withdrawn enrolment?

Once an enrolment has been withdrawn or completed, these enrolments cannot be updated. Please ensure that when withdrawing an enrolment that the correct withdrawal date is entered as once the enrolment has been processed as withdrawn through the ITR, the enrolment cannot be updated.

I have just sent Learner data to the ITR but it has been an hour and have not received a response yet from the ITR. Is the ITR down?

The ITR may not send an immediate response to your trainee management system after submitting Learner details to the ITR (for example creating a training agreement and enrolment). The ITR has a seven day limit to send a response back to an ITO's trainee management system. If no response has been received within an hour from submitting a transaction message, this does not imply that the ITR has stopped working. The ITR will be working through processing different messages and will respond at some point in time.

For a live status update of the ITR, refer to Testing and Development page on TEC’s website.

Unit Standards have been reported as achieved to NZQA as well as the achievement of the qualification. The ITR still has the enrolment as “active,” it has not completed even though Unit Standards have been added to the Learner’s Record of Achievement. Why has ITR not completed the Learner’s enrolment?

In order for the ITR to detect completions, there are two key pieces of information needed for completions of enrolments as explained in the ITR Schema document, pg.179-180.

1. The unit standard version number added to the Learner’s record of achievement must match the unit standard version number the Learner is enrolled and registered in through the ITR.
   
   When reporting Unit Standards as achieved to NZQA, it is best practice to check whether the Unit Standard Version Number to be reported is the same as the Unit Standard Version Number of the Learner’s enrolment. ITO’s can request and retrieve a Learner’s enrolment details in the ITR using the “FetchTertiaryPerformanceData” messages. Refer to Section 6 of the ITR Schema Definition document for more details on Fetch messages.
2. Against a Target Qualification that completion of a programme leads to, there is a qualification number and qualification version number that the Learner is expected to achieve. The ITO reports achievements of Target Qualifications to NZQA. If the target qualification does not match the enrolments details of the Learner in the ITR, the ITR will not process the completion. ITO can request for this information by contacting TEC Service Centre, only if the enrolment is still not completing after checking whether the reported Unit Standard Version Numbers do not match the Learner’s enrolment in the ITR.

Why can I not enrol a trainee in a unit standard when it was awarded after the enrolment started? (5 May 2011)

This issue is caused by the trainee having achieved the standard before they were enrolled on your programme as well as being awarded by you during the enrolment.

The Record of Achievement (RoA) allows standards to be awarded to a learner more than once.  When an ITO looks at a learners RoA the RoA will display the achieved date as the last date the standard was awarded to the learner.  This reflects NZQAs desire to reflect how recent the standard was last achieved (i.e. how current the learners knowledge is).

TEC however is a funding agency and is interested in funding new learning.  This means that the ITR will not allow you to enrol a trainee in a standard that they have already achieved at the time the enrolment started.  This difference in approach will not be an issue for new enrolments but is causing some issues when loading historic enrolments.

You will need to exclude the standard from your enrolment for it to be accepted by the ITR.

Qualification and Standard Numbers (31 March 2011)

Q: Why does ITR reject messages containing qualifications and standards when I can see the qualification or standard exists on the NZQA website?

A: There are a number of business rules that may cause a qualification or standard number to be rejected by the ITR.  These rules will depend on the type of transaction being submitted.  If the ITR is rejecting a qualification or standard number you need to check that the number supplied to the ITR matches that registered with NZQA exactly. This includes any leading zeros.  For example NZQA has registered a National Certificate in Business Administration and Computing with the qualification number ‘0633’.  Any transaction that uses the qualification number ‘633’ will be rejected because it does not match a qualification recorded at NZQA.

The ITR Schema document contains details of business rules that are specific for each type of ITR transaction.

Will transferring a trainee between programme versions effect ITO Educational Performance Indicators? (23 December 2010)

ITR does not have a transfer enrolment transaction. If an ITO registers a new version of a programme and then wants to transfer trainees to the new programme version they will need to withdraw the active enrolments and re-enrol the trainee using the new programme version.

Withdrawing and re-enrolling in a new version will have no effect on educational performance indicators.

ITO's should ensure that the withdrawal reason is set to "CP" (Change of Programme).

Why does ITR require Unit Standard Version Numbers when NZQA does not? (15 November 2010)

The ITR requires ITOs to identify unit standards using the Standard Number and Version Number when registering programmes and enrolling trainees. NZQA uses standard versions when determining the classification of a standard. This is because standard versions can be required when assessing whether a trainee has met the requirements of a qualification. The only time NZQA does not consider standard versions is if the standard is specifically listed within the qualification rules.

When assessing performance TEC needs to know the credit value and level of the standards a trainee enrolled on and the credit value and level of the standards they actually achieved. ITR does this by matching the enrolled standards (and versions) within the ITR with those recorded on the RoA. 

A change in the version of a standard should trigger other processes within an ITO such as reissuing assessment materials plus updating affected enrolments.

Pending status for modern apprenticeships (9 November 2010)

Q: The schema document frequently mentions a “pending” state for training agreements. How is this status set?

A: The status is set by ITR. Within ITR, creating an MA training programme is a two-step process:

1. Establish training agreement and set status to “pending”.
2. Activate training agreement and set status to “active”.

Notes:

• Step 2 doesn’t take place until the MA coordinator signs up the agreement with the trainee, at which point funding commences.
• The step 1 transaction is one of the two available CreateEnrolment sub-types (SimpleEnrolmentType or ComplexModernApprenitceship). The step 2 transaction is CreateMATrainingPlanType, which includes the TrainingPLanSignedDate element.

What is the best way to deal with stranded qualifications with ITR?

The ITR is intended to enable ITOs to construct funded programme wrappers that are applicable to your organisation/industry's arrangements. The things ITOs will need to bear in mind when do that are: - if you do not specify the strand when registering a programme, then the credit value and the nominal duration must reflect the lowest number of credits that you will require a trainee to achieve, and the average length of time that all trainees (irrespective of the strand or strands that they enrol in) are expected to be enrolled for. If you do specify the strand, then you would in all likelihood register several programmes (ie one for each qual/strand combination).

You will need to make sure that there are appropriate cross-crediting arrangements. Alternatively, you could register an SCP as an learning pathway for trainees to complete the requirements of an additional strand, but only after they have completed a national qualification (ITO 013 refers)

Please note that if you do not specify the strand, then you can manage the academic requirements to complete multiple strands of a qualification in your TMS. This would involve you enforcing requirements internally of which unit standards trainees must enrol in. At some point the trainee may have completed the requirements of a given qual, but the ITR will treat them as completion pending until such a time as all of the unit standards on the enrolment are achieved.