Version 4.19.0 - 07/12/2021
Release notes
To confirm we do have a release in December, this is due Dec 7, 2021
The Release webinar is available from here; Click here for 4.19.0 release Video.
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Key | T | Release Notes Title | Release Notes Description | Video Link |
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FEATURE | Reporting - EPA Employment Type | The EPA Information report has been extended to include both a column for Employment Type and a corresponding filter. |
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FEATURE | Back into Learning | As part of the new back into learning process and the new listing screen for apprentices in a Retake Review or Back Into Learning status the information relating to the apprentice’s assessments are now fully visible while the apprentice is back into learning. |
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - Listing Screen | Note: As part of this work we’ve adjusted where the create QA screen will redirect in the event a security error is thrown. It will now redirect the user to the QA listing screen with an appropriate error message. We’ve added a new Back Into Learning listing screen under the Assessment menu item. This new screen will provide a way for users to easily see apprentices that are in a Retake Review or Back Into Learning status. The screen will function as follows:
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FEATURE | Reporting - Adding is_alternative field to reports | The Result Tracking and Result Adjustment reports have both been extended to show a new is_alternative (or *_is_alternative for result adjustment) field to indicate whether or not the outcome against an assessment is from the normal or the alternative grade profile. |
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - Trigger Retake Review | Due to the changes how back into learning is handled, we are migrating existing apprentices in this status where necessary. We recommend running a report to get your current BiL apprentices before this is live so that you can compare and amend the data if required following deployment. Previously back into learning was a change of circumstances which could be applied at any status or stage in the assessment process. Now back into learning is linked directly to an assessment element. Therefore apprentices will be migrated as follows:
We’ve updated the various methods of updating / setting the next action on a result to now trigger the apprentice into a Retake Review status should retake be selected as the next action. This includes via the manage element sidebar, via a result adjustment or when initially entering a result. For elements requiring QA this will be triggered when the QA has been published. If the QA has already been completed then this will trigger for a result adjustment. Otherwise, if QA is not required this will trigger straight away. |
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - Restrict Progress | As part of the back into learning process we’ve added restrictions to EPAPro for when an apprentice is in either a Retake Review or Back Into Learning status. The following restrictions will apply:
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - Remove statuses from change of circumstance screen | As part of the Back Into Learning process, it’s now no longer possible to update an apprentice’s status to Back Into Learning via the change of circumstance screen, API or bulk upload. An error will be shown if this is attempted. An apprentice can only enter Back Into Learning by following the correct Back Into Learning process. |
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - Bulk Update Changes | Back Into Learning is no longer a valid status for the Change of Circumstance Bulk Update. An error will be shown if these statuses are provided. If the apprentice needs to enter Back Into Learning the correct process should be followed. |
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - Management Area | We’ve added a new management area to the Assessment Profile which is shown when an apprentice is either in Retake Review or Back Into Learning. The area differs slightly based on the status, new permissions and notifications have also been added. Retake ReviewWhen an apprentice is in Retake Review a user with permission will need to approve or reject this status. If the status is approved then the apprentice will be moved to a Back Into Learning status. The “Earliest Return Date” will also need to be specific and this indicates the earliest date the apprentice can be returned from the Back Into Learning status. The provider, if they have permission, can then go in and update the “Expected Return Date”, more on this below. If the status is rejected then the apprentice will be moved back to the status that is appropriate for them, this will be On Programme, Completed or Certified. During the rejection, the user will be required to provide a reason, which is to indicate why the request was rejected, plus the new next action of either Resit or Failed that the triggering element will be updated too. NotificationsBoth the approve and reject actions will trigger a notification, approving a retake review will trigger “Retake Review Approved” while rejecting will trigger “Retake Review Rejected”. As with our other notifications, these can be configured via the communication management areas, by default these notifications will be configured as below:
Both of these notifications also have a default of only being an In App notification. And both require the user to be able to PermissionsPlease ensure the default setup for these permissions is suitable for your business. If the default setup would cause users on your system to have too much access then a custom role may be needed before this work is available on your production environment as these new permissions are only added to our system roles by default. We’ve added two new permissions for the Retake Review management feature. These permissions are:
Back Into LearningWhen a retake review request is approved, or if the apprentice was already in a back into learning status when this functionality is released, the assessment profile will be updated to now contain a “Back Into Learning” section. This section will provide a way for users to manage the details of the back into learning process. Clicking manage will open a side drawer and provide the following:
PermissionsPlease ensure the default setup for these permissions is suitable for your business. If the default setup would cause users on your system to have too much access then a custom role may be needed before this work is available on your production environment as these new permissions are only added to our system roles by default. We’ve added three new permissions for the Back Into Learning management feature. These permissions are:
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FEATURE | Communications - Daily digest email for actions and notifications | We have written an email that will be sent to subscribed users at 08:00 daily detailing a count of unread actions and notifications, including a count of actions that have breached their SLA and those that are close to breaching their SLA. This email has been set as opt-out by default, with it being available to all users with the ‘Manage Own Communication Settings’ permission via the user tab of the communication management screen. |
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - API Changes | The Change of Circumstance API endpoint has been updated to now no longer accept Back Into Learning as a valid status. An error will be returned if this is provided. If the apprentice needs to be changed to a Back Into Learning status the correct Back Into Learning process should be followed. |
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FEATURE | Reporting - Back Into Learning Reports | We’ve added a new report under the apprentice category, Back Into Learning. This is available to the owner and awarding organisation roles by default but can be assigned to other roles or users as required. This report also includes current and past programmes in the same results. This report shows the relevant data for the retake review and back into learning processes. It includes the relevant dates and also who triggered the apprentice to enter or leave that process. The report also includes a new filter to allow the user to choose whether they’re able to see Back Into Learning type records or Retake Review type records. |
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FEATURE | Back into Learning - History of expected return date | We’ve added a new report under the apprentice category, Back Into Learning History. This is available to the owner and awarding organisation roles by default but can be assigned to other roles or users as required. This new report also includes the current and past programmes in the same results. This report will provide a history of expected return date changes for each apprentice. The old date is also shown as a comparison and a way to link multiple records together. |
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FEATURE | Reporting - Gateway Status - EPA name | The Gateway Status report has been extended to include the EPA name who is assigned to the apprentice (if there is one) and a corresponding filter. |
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FEATURE | Reporting - ESFA Submission | The ESFA submission report has been extended to include the specialism as a column. The specialism filter has also been added to the report. |
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FEATURE | ESFA Submission - Changing achievement date | Following ESFA guidelines the achievement datetime that is sent to the ESFA on submission has been changed from the datetime stored against the certification record to the datetime that the certification QA was published; in effect the date and time when the certification result became public. |
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FEATURE | Dashboard - Redesigned statistics area | We’ve made some changes to the dashboard to reintroduce some branding colours so that users are more warmly greeted when first logging in. This also ensures that EPAPro is using system colours to indicate certain statuses or areas for attention and the branding colours are used for decoration. The global organisational performance and targets are now situated at the top of the dashboard and the more individual statistics have been moved below. We renamed these more individual statistics to better indicate what they represent to the user and brought the styling in line with the organisation level ones so that there is a more uniform look and feel (whilst keeping some individuality to each). The ‘View Details’ link on the area performance boxes has been removed and instead the entire box is clickable. Desktop users will see this on hover whereas mobile users will now have a larger area to tap on to click through to a specific page. Finally we’ve also added a target for the ‘Apprentices in EPA’ statistic within the organisational performance area for those wishing to track this number. Like other targets this will only show to internal users. Some customers branding colour on their menu used a colour that when applied across the dashboard caused it to be quite monochrome. We have adjusted these to use the alternative branding colour in both the dashboard and the menu. |
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FEATURE | Support Materials - Sort alphabetically | The support materials section has been changed to sort items by their title alphabetically by default. This is to aid users so that finding specific materials is easier. Any newly added materials (or unread by the user) will still have the ‘New’ label. |
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FEATURE | RoA Extension and Apprentice Profile fixes | Updated the ‘awarded_date’ field on component record of achievements to correctly show the date the QA was published rather than the date the QA was created. If no QA took place then the date the result was added to EPAPro will be used as the result would be made immediately available. This change also fixes a bug on the apprentice profile where an assessment would show with the QA created date as its published date; it will now show with the QA published date or the result created date. The component record of achievement has been extended to include the date when the assessment was scheduled according to the assessment plan. This is available as ‘component_scheduled_date’. Please note that this may be different to the date entered when entering a result which is available as ‘date_delivered’. Finally this change also fixes a bug on the apprentice profile where an apprentice that has a certification QA in progress would show the certification grade as if the QA had been published along with the date the QA was created. This will now no longer show until the QA has been published and the date that shows will be the QA published date rather than created. |
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FEATURE | Back Into Learning - Add new fields to the CoC logic | We’ve updated the change of circumstance logic to now have additional fields, where possible we’ve also backfilled these fields for existing change of circumstance entries. The new fields are:
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FEATURE | Reporting - Standards Report | A new Standards report has been added to EPAPro designed to show basic details of the standard record. This is designed for internal use given the data held against the standard record. For EPA and EPAM users the standards are limited to those selected for EPA. This report does not take into account potentially selected QA standards if the EPA/EPAM has elevated permissions. |
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FEATURE | Specialisms Report | A new Specialisms report has been added to EPAPro designed to show basic details of the specialism record. This is designed for internal use given the data held against the specialism record. For EPA and EPAM users the specialisms are limited to those selected for EPA. This report does not take into account potentially selected QA specialisms if the EPA/EPAM has elevated permissions. |
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FEATURE | Microsoft Integration - Show detailed event information | The Microsoft 365 integration has been extended to allow detailed event information to be shown within the EPA availability calendar. An example is below: Default behaviour: Busy Detailed behaviour: Customer Meeting (Busy) This is controllable via a new setting within the configuration area. By default this functionality is turned off and is opt-in. |
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FEATURE | Top Navigation - Added titles | We’ve added titles on hover for the buttons in the header for Actions, Notifications, and the optional Help link. |
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FEATURE | Reporting - Adding 'Assessment Type' to QA Audit report | The QA Audit report has been extended to include the assessment type of a component i.e. Business project, Interview etc… A filter for this field has also been added. |
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BUG | Standard - Unable to deactivate a standard even with no apprentices | We’ve fixed a bug where deactivating a standard was not possible due to other linked entities even if the standard did not have any apprentices. Standards can now be deactivated providing no apprentices are or have been on the standard. |
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BUG | Provider / Employer - Users editing their own record via the users tab lose ability to login | We’ve fixed a bug where a primary user editing their own record via the respective “Users” tab on the edit employer/provider screen would lose the ability to login again due to their login methods being cleared. |
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BUG | Certification - Not Applicable Pre-Selecting | We’ve fixed a bug where the not applicable option was being pre-selected when creating a new certification. |
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BUG | Result Adjustment - Some users unable to see the result adjustment button | We’ve fixed a bug where a small number of users were unable to see the result adjustment button even when it was possible for them to perform the action. |
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BUG | Reporting - Fixing reports for QA user | Fixed a bug where the following reports would error if run by a QA user:
Please note that reports are not, by default, available for QA users and must be granted this permission. |
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BUG | Assessment Result - Surpass results fixes | Fixed typo on 'percantage' and fixed alignment issue within the header section. |
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BUG | Assessment Result - URL can be changed to perform a result adjustment | We’ve fixed a bug where it was possible to change the URL and access the adjust screen of a result if the user had permission even if they were not supposed to be able to perform a result adjustment. |
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BUG | Assign Apprentice - Caseload number | Fixed a bug in assign apprentice which showed the EPA caseload figure incorrectly. It was erroneously including previously deleted pending assignments thereby inflating the figure in a small number of cases. |
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