5.22 Maytas ESFA Release Notes

Note regarding submissions

We would like to remind providers to create a submission early and check for any errors using reports from the appropriate software (i.e. the FIS or LLWR-Inform). Welsh providers should also remember to download their ULI file. After submission to the ESFA or DfES, providers should check that data has submitted correctly using the available reports. Providers should check that all their expected starts and completions are submitted correctly, and that start and outcome payments correctly match the PFR or ACE funding reports.

Our support desk gets extremely busy in the days prior to the submission deadlines, and although we try and prioritise submission-related queries, we cannot guarantee assistance if queries are sent late. If you do encounter any issues, please ensure that you contact Maytas Support as soon as possible, as we can only rectify issues of which we are aware. We also recommend checking Maytas Communities regularly for information on any known issues and solutions. Tribal cannot be held responsible for any issues caused by your failure to comply with this advice.

Data migration

Please note that it is important to ensure that all 2020/21 learners have been entered before the upgrades are applied. This is because the upgrade migrates 2020 data to the 2021 fields, and any 2020 learners entered after the upgrades will not be migrated. As such, if any 2020 learners do need to be entered after the upgrade, both the 2020 and 2021 tabs must be completed to ensure all data is present and correct.

Technical specification

The latest Maytas and Maytas Hub technical specification can be found here.

Once the upgrade has been completed, the version number should be checked to ensure it has been successful.

  1. Start Maytas and go to Support on the toolbar.
  2. Click About.
  3. The version numbers should read 181.20 / 5.22.7900.3. If you have any other version, please ensure you have followed the upgrade instructions correctly. If you require assistance, please contact Maytas Support.

It is the responsibility of customers to ensure that users carry out any required user acceptance testing and sign off on the upgrade.

Complete the Upgrade

Features Added in the Upgrade

These are the main updates in the upgrade:

Reports Library 1.0.3.8 is also included in the upgrade but must be installed separately, which is detailed in the Upgrade Guide. The reports library can be downloaded here. If you are a hosted customer, please contact the Service Desk to arrange for the reports library update to be applied.

Check the Contractor Details for the ESFA Export

  1. Open Maytas 5 and select Management | Contracts.
  2. Highlight the contractor name (company) you wish to edit.

  3. Right-click and select Edit.

  4. The Company screen will be displayed. The technical upgrade will have copied the UK PRN field to the new 21 box. If necessary, you should amend this value.
  5. Providers need to ensure that these instructions are completed for each company (contractor) used for the ESFA export.

Create the 2021/22 ESFA Formula-Funded Contract

A 2021/22 ESFA formula-funded contract should be set up for each ESFA contractor. Without this contract, Maytas is unable to determine the funding rules, schemes and lookup codes to use.

  1. In the Contracts module, left-click the contractor (company) to which you wish to add the new contract.
  2. Click Add Contract on the ribbon.

  3. Make sure that option 1. Existing company is selected then click Next.

  4. Enter a contact description (e.g. ESFA 2021/22).
  5. Enter a contract number if required.
  6. Select the SFA/EFA/ESFA Formula Funded Contract option.
  7. Select year 2021/2022.
  8. Click Next.
  9. Amend the schemes you wish to include in the contract and click Next.
  10. Click Finish.

Import Funding Information

The process for importing the required funding information into Maytas is as follows:

Re-Import the FIS Data Sets

If the 2018/19 data sets were imported in a previous version, this step can be skipped and you should proceed to importing the LARS.

If the FIS data sets for 2018/19 were not imported in a previous release, it is essential that they are imported into Maytas one final time for use by the funding cache. This should be done by importing the relevant information directly from the Data Service’s Funding Information System (FIS). To do this, you must have the FIS installed and correctly configured (please refer to the Data Service’s instructions for setting up the FIS).

Please ensure you have the latest version of the 2018/19 FIS application with the latest components installed.

Once the FIS is installed and configured, the information can be imported as follows:

  1. Perform a sync in Maytas 5, then restart Maytas 5.

  2. Go to Exports | Uploads | Upload FIS Data Sets.

  3. There are three items to configure:
    • Database Machine Name – If the FIS is installed on the same machine that you are using for Maytas 5, this can be left as (local). Otherwise, enter the machine name of the SQL server where the FIS database is held.

    • Database Instance – If the SQL server holding the FIS database has a named instance (e.g. MACHINENAME\INSTANCENAME), select Named Instance and enter the instance name. Otherwise leave this as Default Instance.

      If you have no named instance and Default Instance does not work, you may need to select Named Instance and leave the instance name blank.

    • Connection Type – This is the login for the SQL server holding the FIS database. Trusted Connection will use Windows authentication. If you wish to specify the login details, select Specific Connection and enter the credentials.
  4. Click OK. The FIS data will now be imported.
  5. If you have an Adult Skills budget contract and a transition factor, this must be entered on the contract:
    1. Go to Management on the toolbar and click Contracts on the ribbon.
    2. Select the relevant contractor, then select the Adult Skills contract on the right.
    3. Click the button.
    4. Go to the Uplifts tab.
    5. Enter the ASB Transition Factor and click OK.
    6. Click Apply to save the change.

Import LARS

The LARS should be imported as follows:

  1. Download the latest LARS MDB file. At the time of this release, the latest version is the LARS MDB version 7.

    Version 8 of the LARS has not been released in time for it to be incorporated into this upgrade, and so support for it will be added in a future Maytas upgrade.

  2. In Maytas, go to Exports on the toolbar.
  3. On the ILR Tools panel of the ribbon, go to Uploads | Upload Funding Information | Upload LARS (Version 7).
  4. Browse to and select the downloaded LARS file and click Open.
  5. The file will now be imported. Click OK on the message which appears.

Progress on the import can be checked by going to Home | Server Tasks | Server Jobs. Typically it will take several minutes.

Import Postcode File

  1. Obtain the postcode uplift factors file - Download the zip file under 2021 to 2022 uplift factors by postcode and LLSOA: CSV files.
  2. In Maytas, go to Exports on the toolbar.
  3. On the ILR Tools panel of the ribbon, go to Uploads | Upload Postcodes| Upload Post Code Data (2021/22).
  4. Browse to and select the postcode uplifts zip file and click Open.
  5. The file will now be imported. Click OK on the message which appears.

Progress on the import can be checked by going to Home | Server Tasks | Server Jobs. Typically this will take several minutes.

The new postcode uplift file has introduced a source of funding (SOF) field. Currently Maytas will only use the new uplifts for SOF 105/107, and use of other SOF values from the uplifts file will be implemented in a future upgrade.

Large employer factor data sets do not need to be imported for 2021/22. LEF data for 2018/19 and earlier is included in the FIS import.

Note on the Funding Cache

By default, the funding cache will update overnight so that funding information in Maytas uses the newly-imported FIS and postcode information. Please check with your system administrator if you are unsure if or when the funding cache is updated on your system. You can also manually set the funding cache to update by going to Management | Profiles and clicking the Funding Cache button, though please be aware that this may take a long time and may use a large amount of system resources, which could affect performance for other users on the system.

Maytas 5 Version 5.22.7900.3 Release Notes

2021/22 Contract Year Updates

New Contract Year Tabs

New Maytas tabs for 2021/22 have been produced for the ILR and LLWR as per specifications from the Data Service and DfES. These will have been imported automatically in the upgrade. Please note that while both ILR and LLWR tabs are imported, the relevant tabs will only show for the relevant learners – i.e. ILR tabs will only show to learners on English schemes and LLWR tabs will only show to learners on Welsh schemes. Details of the tabs can be found below.

Please note that user permissions will need to be set for the new tabs, as by default they are available to all users. Also please note that if you have changed the field type for any ILR fields (e.g. to or from a lookup), these will need to be changed from the default field type in the screen designer.

ILR Changes for 2021/22

These are the main ILR changes for 2021/22 which have been implemented in Maytas:

New Tabs for 2021/22

There are six new ILR tabs for 2021/22:

As in previous years, the tabs have been designed so that only the appropriate tabs appear for each scheme. However, we are aware that many providers have bespoke or non-standard scheme groups. In these cases, it is possible that the tabs may not appear on certain schemes. This can be rectified in the following way:

  1. Check the group type of the scheme (SCHEME.GROUPTYPE).
  2. In Maytas 5, go to Tools on the toolbar and click New / Load on the Screens panel.
  3. Select Trainee on the left.
  4. Double-click the ILR tab which is not appearing. The tabs for 2021/22 are:
    • ILR 2021 App Starter Info
    • ILR 2021 App Leaver Info
    • ILR 2021 16-19 Starter Info
    • ILR 2021 16-19 Leaver Info
    • ILR 2021 Other Starter Info
    • ILR 2021 Other Leaver Info

  5. Alter the Scheme group as required. Each group should be separated with a comma (no spaces). For example, if the App tab is not showing for scheme 3, and the group type for scheme 3 is called MY_GROUP, the tab should be set as in the screenshot.

  6. Click Apply to save the changes.
New Fields

There are three new ILR fields for 2021/22:

Removed Fields

Prior attainment level has been removed from the ILR as it has been replaced by the prior attainment entity.

Notes on Continuing Learners and Migration

As part of the upgrade, data for continuing learners is migrated from the 2020/21 fields to the 2021/22 fields. Any changes to continuing learners and any late-notified learners entered after the upgrade should be completed on both the 2020/21 and 2021/22 tabs. This is because certain ILR fields are recorded in different fields in the database from year to year, and therefore it is important to ensure that all data is completed and correct on both tabs.

The following fields are NOT migrated from 2020/21 to 2021/22:

It is important to ensure these fields are completed on the 2021/22 tabs where required.

ILR Reports for 2021/22

The ILR reports have been created using the available ILR guidance for 2021/22. Providers should check with the ESFA that they are happy for the current reports to be used and that it is compliant for audit purposes. As this has been the case for the reports in previous years, we do not expect any issues in this regard.

There are reports available for apprenticeship, 16-19 (excluding apprenticeships) and non-16-19 learners.

The ILR reports are automatically imported in the upgrade and can be found in the ILR folder of the Reports Library.

There are two ways to run the reports:

ILR Export 2021/22

The ILR export for 2021/22 is now available in Maytas. To view the ILR export screen for 2021/22:

  1. Click Exports on the toolbar.
  2. Click ILR Export on the ribbon.

  3. Click the button.

  4. Choose 2021 from the Survey Year dropdown box.
  5. Choose the Notional Return period.
  6. Amend the UKPRN as required.

  7. Once ready, click OK.

  8. Locate the submission by expanding the contract year and period using the arrows to the left. Click the submission to select it. The status will say Generate pending until the export data has been generated. It will then say File preparation finished. Please note that this may take a while, depending on the amount of data being exported.

    • Edit opens the export and allows you to view and edit the export settings. Please note that not all settings can be changed once an export has been created.
    • Generate processes the export and produces a text file showing any errors for each learner. This allows you to correct any errors and re-generate before the batch file is created. The generation progress is shown with the circular progress bar to the right.
    • View Log shows any errors in the export. These should be investigated and resolved and the data re-generated before outputting the XML.
    • Output XML creates the actual batch file. The file will be created at C:\Temp on the Maytas server.
    • Get File lets you download the batch file once it has been created.

The 2021/22 ILR export has been tested and validated against the latest version of the online ILR specification as of the time of this release, as well as other accompanying documents. As of this release, the 2021/22 FIS is still in a beta stage, and so we have not yet been able to test the ILR export with the FIS comprehensively. Further testing will be done as new versions of the FIS become available.

While we have tested the ILR export to the best of our ability with the available specifications, there may be further issues which have not yet been identified. It is also possible that future versions of the FIS and the ILR specification may require the export and/or FIS import to be changed to meet any new criteria. Any changes that are required will be implemented in a follow-up release of Maytas.

Migration of ILR export override flags

The following details whether ILR export flags are migrated from 2020/21 to 2021/22. For information on setting these flags, please contact Maytas support.

Force Export Flag

The 2020/21 force export flag is not copied to the 2021/22 force export flag. To override the ILR export and include a POT that does not meet the 2021/22 ILR export criteria, the 2021/22 export flag must be set.

Blocking Flags

The 2020/21 blocking flags are copied to the 2021/22 blocking flags. Aims blocked from the 2020/21 export will continue to be blocked in the 2021/22 export.

Funding Information

The funding information for 2021/22 in this upgrade is based on the funding rules for 2020/21, since full specifications were not available at the time of development. The 2021/22 funding information in this upgrade should be considered a beta version and is subject to change once future specifications have been published.

Completion Status and Outcome

Updated versions of the ILR 2020/21 tabs are included with this release which use new fields for outcome and completion status. These are referred to as the R14 fields. Data from the existing fields are migrated to them during the upgrade, and in most cases these values do not need to be altered. The R14 fields are what will be used for the 2020/21 ILR export and the existing fields will continue to be used from 2021/22 onwards.

The purpose of this change is to allow different values for 20/21 and 21/22 to be recorded, so that learners who completed in 20/21 who were on a break in learning or had an unknown outcome can be correctly included by the 21/22 ILR export. As with any other continuing learner, you should ensure that data is correct on the tabs for each contract year.

For late-notified leavers where the learner left in 20/21 but the data is entered during 21/22, it is important that you complete the above fields on both the 20/21 and 21/22 tabs, even though the learner has not continued into 21/22. This is to ensure the data is recorded in the existing / ongoing fields so that the correct data for these learners is included on reports.

Engage Integration

Edge Roles for Learners

This is only applicable to customers who use the Engage integration and have configured Edge roles.

A new field, Additional Edge Roles, has been added to the Web User Account tab on learner records in Maytas, which allows you to specify Edge roles for learners (in addition to the default role of Student) so that they can be sent to Edge / Engage.

The lookups displayed for this field (TRAINEEINFO.EDGEROLES) depend on your configured Edge roles. When a learner's roles are sent to Edge / Engage, it is the longstring values from the lookups which are sent. Multiple roles can be selected and sent for a learner.

Ending Learners in Engage

If a learner has no open POTs in Maytas, they will now be automatically set as a blocked user in Engage rather than a current user when their record is sent to Engage.

Single Sign-on - Login Using Azure Active Directory

It is now possible to login to Maytas using credentials from an Azure AD account. First this needs to be configured, which requires your Azure AD client ID and tenant (your Azure AD system administrator should be able to provide these values):

  1. In Maytas, click the M5 button at the top left and select Options.
  2. Go to Admin on the left (under the Maytas header).
  3. In the Azure AD section, tick the boxes for the three Azure AD settings and enter their values:
    • Azure AD ClientId - Value provided by administrator
    • Azure AD Instance - This should be set to https://login.microsoftonline.com/
    • Azure AD Tenant - Value provided by administrator
  4. Click OK.

Next, each user who needs to login using this feature must have the email address associated with their Azure AD account entered against their Maytas user account:

  1. Go to Tools | Edit Permissions.
  2. Right-click the user and select Edit.

  3. Enter the Azure AD email address in the SSO Email box.

  4. Click OK, then click Apply.

When a configured user now opens Maytas, if their configured credentials are recognised by Azure then they will be automatically logged into Maytas. Otherwise, the login prompt will now display a separate window (shown below) that can be used by configured users to select which Azure AD account to use. Alternatively, the window can be closed to login to Maytas as normal with Maytas credentials.

Finally, the desktop return URL and platform type in Azure must be set. The return URL must be set to:

https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/nativeclient

The platform type for Maytas must be set to Mobile and desktop applications.

For further details on configuring Azure, see here.

Reports Library 1.0.3.8

Updates for 2021/22

The reports library has been updated to use fields from 2021/22 where appropriate and to include the 2021/22 report year on certain parameters.

QAR 2020/21 Rulesets

The Achievement Rate reports have been updated to include the 2020/21 ruleset based on the published QAR specifications.

The main change is that the Education & Training (ET) QAR no longer includes aims with a programme type of 24 (Traineeship) in the base dataset, as these aims are now only included in the Traineeship QAR.

New Report - ILR Field Reference

The ILR Field Reference report shows where ILR fields map to in the Maytas database, along with any notes regarding how fields are handled for the ILR export.

Parameters

Layout

When the report is run, the first page shows the version key, which lists each version of the field references for the selected year and the changes that were made. Each version is colour-coded, and throughout the report various fields are highlighted based on the version in which they were updated. In some cases only certain columns are highlighted - e.g. if the Maytas Field is highlighted, that indicates a new database field has been created; if the App tab column is highlighted, that indicates the field has been added or removed from that tab compared to the previous version, etc. If an entire row is highlighted, that indicates that it is a new field that has been introduced to the ILR.

You can click on a version in the key to view only the changes for that version.

The rest of the report lists all the ILR fields, with each ILR entity listed on a separate page. You can click on any field name to go to the ILR specification page for that field.

To download a copy of the report, it is recommended to export it to Excel. This will produce a separate worksheet within the Excel file for each ILR entity.

Columns

New Report - QAR Apprenticeship / ET Dataset to Excel

Two new reports have been added to the Quality folder of the Reports Library called QAR Apprenticeship Dataset to Excel and QAR ET Dataset to Excel. The purpose of these reports is to produce a data output similar to the provider QAR data provided by the ESFA which can be exported to Excel for data manipulation and analysis.

These reports were produced as a result of feedback and consultation with customers, as it became clear that while the existing QAR / Achievement Rate reports fulfill the need for a high-level view of QAR figures, many customers who are highly-familiar with the QAR rules and datasets require in-depth analysis tools to help them better understand their data and address any issues in advance of final QAR results.