In release 2022.14, (released 18th January 2023), we have implemented improvements to how the system manages reporting certificates and new functionality that allows for more flexibility for that. In addition to that we have implemented a range of other improvements around generating Certificates and associated processes.
In this article, we will cover all of these changes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Background
- Enrolment Display changes
- Edit Certificate changes
- Generating Certificate changes
- Certificate Template changes
- Record External Award
- Data Migration
Background
To date the system has managed reporting of certificates in the NAT130 file through the Qualification Issued and Statement Issued flags viewable in the Admin panel of any enrolment:
Generally these fields would be set automatically as a Qualification or Statement of Attainment was created. If a Certificate was not reportable then it would be necessary to edit the enrolment and disable the flag so that the award would not be reported. In addition to that, users had no functionality to determine in what year a Certificate would be reported.
This has now changed and we have implemented some improvements to the Certificate generation process and at the same time implemented some new fields to give you control over when these Certificates will be reported for AVETMISS reporting.
Enrolment Display changes
The first thing that has changed is that there is now a clear distinguishment between a reportable qualification and a non reportable qualification. The former field Qualification Issued is now referred to as Completion Issued and Statement Issued is now referred to as Non-reportable Statement, we consider that this a better way to reflect the reportability status. This is the new Enrolment View:
Instead of a check boxes to show whether a Qualification or Statement has been issued, we now show a date next to the Completion Issued or Non-reportable Statement when one has been recorded. This field is also hyperlinked to the award so that you can access a copy of the award in a new tab, directly from the enrolment. If you have issued multiple certificates, only the most recent of each type will be displayed. These fields are no longer editable in the enrolment edit page, but can be edited directly from the qualification if necessary.
For users who record award in an external system you can now also record that information in the system without having to create an actual document via the Record External Award, more on that below.
Edit Certificate changes
We have changed the Edit Certificate page as well to reflect the new fields that are required for these changes. These are the new fields that have been added to certificates:
Recorded Date: This is a new field where you can enter the date that the certificate was recorded. The year for the Recorded Date will determine in which year the certificate will be reported in AVETMISS reporting.
Reportable: This field can be found via Certificates List → Edit Certificate, there is now a checkbox named Reportable. Having this checked will allow the certificate to appear in the NAT00130 file and subsequently be reported to the government. This is simply a label change from the old Enabled field and hopefully better reflects its intended purpose for users.
On release, the Recorded Date field will be populated for all Qualifications issued in the system to match the date the Qualification was recorded. This was not previously accessible from the user interface.
Generating Certificate changes
We have refactored how Certificates are generated, both for Certificates created against a Party, for Certificates created in bulk from the Course, or from the Progress Centre -> Certificates pages.
Previously when generating a Certificate the user had little control over some of the individual settings for that Certificate until after that Certificate had been created. We have now enabled functionality that will enable users to manage these fields as the Certificate is being created.
The Certificate generation process has been broken into separate steps.
Step 1 - Certificate details
As before, the process is started by choosing the relevant Certificate Template. With the new process though, users can now specify other data related to that Certificate:
These are the new fields that can be accessed as the Certificate is generated:
Recorded Date - This will default to the current date and can be changed as required.
Issued Date - This will default to the current date and can be changed as required.
Reportable - Specify whether or not this Certificate is to be reported. This will inherit the value set on the Template, see below. The user can also overwrite this value if required.
Digital Export Enabled - For clients using the QVault integration, this setting will flag this award as being a candidate for creating a Digital Certificate.
Notes - Free form note.
Early Exit Award - For clients with the TCSI feature enabled, Early Exit Awards can now also be created, on clicking Early Exit Award, the other fields that relate to these will be displayed to the user:
When the relevant information has been entered, select the Next command to continue.
Step 2 - Enrolment selection
This part remains the same, for an Individual, choose the Enrolment(s) that need a certificate generated for:
Or on a course, choose the Students to generate a Certificate for:
Choose an enrolment, then select the Preview command
Step 3 - Preview
A preview of the Certificate will be produced:
If everything is produced as expected, click on the Produce Certificate command button to generate the award:
Certificate Template changes
We have implemented functionality so that the default Certificate reportability can be managed directly from the template.
Certificate templates have a new Completion Award flag field. When set as enabled, any Certificates generated using this template will have the Reportable field for the Certificate enabled by default.
The Completion Award field can be set for specific certificate templates. For Certificates of type Qualification the Completion Award flag will be enabled by default. For all other Certificate types it will be disabled by default. If you have any Templates used for generating Statements of Attainment for Skill Sets, you may want to enable the Completion Award flag on those.
Merge fields
We have also added the fields Issued Date, Recorded Date, Early Exit Program (307) code, Early Exit Program (307) name and
Early Exit Date (592) to the list of merge fields that can be used with a Certificate template
Record External Award
This feature is really designed to allow users to record the reportable data associated with an award that has been generated outside of the system. For example if your certificates using external software etc, Clicking on the Record External Award button, accessible from any enrolment, will allow you to enter the details for an award that was issued outside of the system.
You can enter the same information for a manual award as you would for one generated in the system. This allows you to include external awards in your government reporting.
These Certificates can also be viewed from the Party and Course Certificates pages:
Note that External Awards will not be linked to a document and that will be highlighted when you access the Certificate pages as these Certificates will appear unlinked and without a template reference.
Data Migration
On deployment we will be updating some of the data fields within the system.
Firstly, all certificates recorded in the system up until the 18th January will have a new Recorded Date field populated from the creation date of the certificate.
Secondly, all recorded Certificates of type Qualification, will be update the Reportable flag to Enabled (ie all Qualification certificates will be made as reportable by default). All Certificates of Type Statement of Attainment or Other will have the Reportable field disabled and flagged as non reportable.
Thirdly, Certificate Templates of type Qualification will have the Completion Award field enabled by default. For all other Certificate Templates this field will be disabled by default.
We hope these new processes streamline your own and help to become more efficient when producing Certificates. If you have any questions or concerns please peel free to reach out to our support team.