This page lists some of the recent changes to PICS. We also have a list of known issues being investigated.
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Learners
Dashboards
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27th June
Month End
The Skills Bootcamp Occupancy funding reconciler was throwing the error “Cannot get a text value from a bool cell”. Now fixed
24th June
Reviews
Completing a review could cause an error on the signatures section of the wizard if no review settings had been saved to the database. Now fixed.
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Answers in a UDF multiple-choice question can now be reordered.
Slashes and spaces can no longer be used in UDF answer codes.
In the Recruit an Apprentice (RAA) integration, a default workflow and status can now be specified for any new applicants and organisations created by the RAA vacancy application import.
Custom course enrolment statuses can now be created in Courses > Configuration > Custom Enrolment Statuses. These can be set against learner or applicant enrolments.
HGV Skills Bootcamp Contracts can now be selected when creating a Contract Item against a contract. Note: Funding calculations are not yet available for HGV Skills Bootcamp contracts.
Dashboards
Count widgets can now use string and string list fields as the Target Column in widgets based on saved reports. Once a column is selected any number of values can be entered and the count will show the number of report records with those values.
Count widgets can now be used to show a count of all records in the report. Report filters can be used to limit the records in the report.
DB Admins would receive an error if deleting a shared dashboard if they got the permission from a User Group. Now Fixed.
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Interactive Run Now reports would not show in the available reports list. Now Fixed.
12th May
Dashboards
Dashboard widgets using “Set up the widget now” instead of a saved report will now cache the widget data for one hour instead of entirely reloading the data every time the widget is shown. Data will be refreshed automatically if the widget is reloaded after one hour, if the widget options are edited, or the manual data refresh button is clicked on the widget.
When using widgets or interactive reports with row and column analysis fields and a date Grouping Type (such as calendar month), clicking on columns would not show any data. Now fixed.
UDF number fields in interactive reports no longer show decimal places for whole numbers.
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When enrolling a learner you can now select which Smart Assessor Episode to add the qualifications to.
Dashboards
The Create An Apprenticeship Accountability Dashboard Now action is now available for any customer with the Accountability Framework licence, regardless of whether they have set up a saved Accountability Framework report.
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It is now possible to use UKPRN instead of Organisation ID to authenticate with the LRS Web Service.
Configuring Cognassist now has a setting to provide the base URL so that you can open Learners and Applicants in Cognassist from PICS.
Smart Assessor integration now supports the Registration Date and Number fields during a refresh.
Customers using Smart Coach can now configure the Smart Assessor integration to set the PICS Risk based upon the Smart Coach Risk.
Dashboards
It is now possible to clone widgets within a dashboard. Widget options have been moved to a menu and a Clone Widget option has been added.
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We can now enable the Advanced Mosaic theme by default for all users upon request
HTML Editors would not allow a link to be added correctly. Now fixed.
Fields that are always required now have a visual * indicator next to their label.
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Learners
The calculation of Expected Off the Job Hours to Date differed slightly from the Learner display when a Break-in-Learning had occurred. The reports version is now the same as the Learner display.
Learner reports containing ILR data have now been updated to use the 2023 version of annual fields, unless the report field explicitly shows a different year.
Employability Learners
Filtering by Purchase Order Number and Date has been added.
The JobCentre output field is now full organisation output not just the name
Vacancies
Output of the Officer Main Organisation has been added.
Appointments
Workflow and Workflow Main Status outputs have been added.
Created and Modified date filters have been added.
Communications
Workflow and Workflow Main Status outputs have been added.
Created and Modified date filters have been added.
Tasks
Workflow and Workflow Main Status outputs have been added.
Created and Modified date filters have been added.
QAR Report
The QAR reports (including the QAR reconciler) now conform to the calculations defined in the 2022 ESFA QAR technical specifications.
Reports with a Current Age filter could fail to update when saved interactive reports mode. Now Fixed.
Dashboards
Visibility restriction by Team was not working. Now fixed.
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Trainee Assessors are not being included in the Edit Officer OneFile ID form. Now fixed.
Smart Assessor integration now has an option to push changes in qualification status up to Smart Assessor.
Reports
Important: Output of Postcode fields has been separated from general Address fields. We will be upgrading your stored reports to include this field if the Address field has been selected but please check the report outputs to ensure this has happened successfully.
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A new report template, “User Sites Report” has been added which shows the Sites each user is linked to (or not).
Filtering by Status has been added to the User report.
Filtering by Site on the User report has been changed to allow “Any of”, “All of”, “None of” options - this will break existing stored reports that have selections in this filter - please check your reports if you have used this. At the time of writing there is 1 customer with 1 report.
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The wording of whether a Learner, ILR Aim, Destination & Progression, or Workplace is included in the ILR has been standardised across data entry and reports. The variations of Export Status, Report in ILR etc. are now all referred to as ILR Export Status with options of Include in ILR Export or Withhold from ILR Export. This will need updating in existing reports and documents that use this field.
Ending a Break-in-Learning will now copy forward the HHS, DAMs, Subcontractor/Partner UKPRN and Learning Start Date Postcode where appropriate.
Actions that change a Learner’s Break-in-Learning status now refresh the whole page to ensure that the correct Start, Cancel, and/or End options are shown.
Learner Sex is now an optional for non-ILR Learners.
Learner Status filtering now includes an option for “In Learning and Last Year Leavers”.
The Learner Reference Number can now be set if there is not already an existing LRN for that learner. This only affects commercial learners who have been stored in PICS for several years, or where a new learning episode has been created for such a learner.
Editing the postcode on the ILR Learner Edit screen will now trigger a background update of postcode information.
Changes have been made to the ILR validation to reflect the ESFA Validation Rules version 5. These include:
New rules LearnDelFamType_108, Fworkcode_07, AchDate_12 and R133.
EmpId_13 (Employer ID cannot be 999999999) has been downgraded to a warning.
Minimum duration rules for Apprenticeship Standards (DateOfBirth_46 and DateOfBirth_47) are now applied.
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Reports will now be aborted if they take more than 2 hours to run.
Reports are now limited to 200 optional fields.
For outputs linked to organisations, the following fields have been added to help report on the geographic spread of linked organisations: Ward, Ward Name, Region, and Local Authority.
Site filters in all reports are now multi select.
New Reports
A new report, Contracts Report, has been added to report against contracts.
A new report, ESF Contracting Report, has been added to report against ESF Supplementary Data.
Learner Report:
Performance improvements have been made to populating fields defined on the base Learner report.
Performance improvements have been made to populating UDF fields.
Filtering by Apprenticeship Service Status has been added.
Output of Age Band has been added to show the current Age Band.
Output of Programme SSA Tier 1 Title has been added.
Output Programme SSA Title has been renamed to Programme SSA Tier 2 Title. This will need updating in existing reports and documents that use this field.
Output of Source Applicant ID has been added.
Output of ILR EPA Organisation ID and Location have been added.
Output of the “Current LSF” field has been fixed. It was previously showing “Any LSF”.
Output of Start / End Reported Period fields has been added.
Learner Assessment Report
There were 2 fields name Title - for the Learner honorific and the Assessment Title - which could cause errors. The Assessment Title field has been renamed “Assessment Title”. This will need updating in existing reports and documents that use this field.
ILR Learner Report
Non ILR Funding Organisation can be included in this report - you must specify the Funding Organisations to include in the report options.
Filtering by ILR Employment Status has been added. This will return Learners that have any Employment records with the selected Statuses
Filtering by ILR Employment Monitoring has been added. This will return Learners that have any Employment Monitoring with any of the selected values.
Learner ILR Aims Report
Non ILR Funding Organisation can be included in this report - you must specify the Funding Organisations to include in the report options.
Non ILR Aims can be included in this report - you must specify the Aim Types to include in the report options.
Filtering by “Aim records added between dates” has been added.
Filtering by “Aim records with completion fields changed between dates” has been added. The fields are End Date, Completion Status, Learning Outcome, and Employment Outcome. Achieve date is also included on Programme Aims.
Output of EPA Organisation Location has been added.
Output of HE fields has been added.
Reviews Report
Output of Count of Attached Files has been added.
Change Request Report
Filtering by the Date the request was rejected has been added.
Output of the Date the request was rejected has been added.
Output of the User who rejected the request was has been added.
QAR Report
A new report type has been added: Apprenticeship Component Aims. This allows you to report across all apprenticeship component aims instead of just the programme aims. This is the equivalent of the “Report on comp aims (not prog aims)” option in desktop reports.
Completion, Retention and Pass totals and charts are now available for all report types, not just Education and Training reports. A new menu to select the type of table you wish to display has been added to allow this to be selected.
Achievement Rate forecasting (minimum and maximum rates) has been added to the QAR report. This will calculate a maximum learner total based on learners who are still in learning and could potentially still achieve, this is added to the existing achievement rate. Maximum rates assume that all of these learner will achieve, minimum rates assume that none of them will. A new menu to select the type of table you wish to display has been added to allow this to be selected. Any existing reports must be re-run to calculate the forecasting data.
New QAR reports will default to use the Interactive output mode. Existing saved reports are unaffected.
Output of Outcome Grade has been added. This is taken from the Main Aim for reports based on Programme Aims.
The QAR report can now be filtered by Site, Contract, UKPRN, or ILR Export Status for learners and aims.
The QAR dataset now includes a QAR Notes output which provides helpful notes when the overall year is modified due to events such as overdue planned breaks, or programme aims at EPA.
Learner Timeliness report. This is a new report which shows the time taken to enter key dates on a learner or aim, such as start, end, or achievement. It also includes changes to key dates to allow better monitoring of when these changes occur.
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