Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency

Last updated: 05 February 2010

QCDA provides information, guidance and support for centres and consortia involved in Diploma administration.

Agreements

Information for centres delivering Diplomas from September 2009

Before your centre can start to use the Diploma aggregation service it is very important that your Head of Centre signs the following two agreements:

1.Diploma aggregation service (DAS) Head of Centre Agreement

2. Managing Information Across Partners (MIAP) organisation agreement

Your centre will only be able to gain access to the Diploma aggregation service and the MIAP Learner registration service if these agreements are completed and signed.

The agreements ensure that access to both of these systems is safe and secure, and that the interests of Diploma learners are protected.

Arrangements for obtaining and returning agreement forms

DAS Head of Centre Agreement

If your centre is participating in the Diploma but has not yet completed and returned an agreement, please contact the DAS helpdesk by telephone on 0300 100 0100 or by email at das.helpdesk@qcda.gov.uk.

DAS log-in details

QCDA has now completed the process of issuing usernames and passwords to nominated local administrators in centres so that they can log into DAS.

If you are a local administrator and you have not received your log-in details, please contact the DAS helpdesk for advice.

Deferred centres

If your centre was intending to participate in the Diploma from September 2009 but has now decided to defer until September 2010 or later, and you do not wish to be contacted about the DAS Head of Centre Agreement at this stage, please inform your local QCDA centre support officer (CSO).

If you are not sure who the CSO is for your area, you can find out at http://testsandexams.qcda.gov.uk/csomap/.

MIAP organisation agreement

Your centre must also complete a MIAP organisation agreement and nominate a 'super user' for the Learner registration service using the MIAP organisation registration form.

The LRS is the system your centre will use to obtain unique learner numbers (ULNs) for each of your Diploma students. The ULN is a key piece of information which you will use to create individual learner accounts in the Diploma aggregation service.

The DAS learner account is the place where results are recorded for all the constituent qualifications and elements that the student needs to complete to achieve their Diploma award.

MIAP has its own arrangements for how your centre should return their organisation agreement and organisation registration form.

If your centre has not completed and returned either of these MIAP forms, please contact the MIAP LRS helpdesk by telephone on 0845 602 2589 or by email at lrssupport@miap.gov.uk.

Diploma Validator is now available

Centres can now check that each of their Diploma learners is on a valid programme of study by using the Diploma Validator.

Produced by QCDA, this new tool is intended for use mainly by curriculum planners in Diploma home centres.

Users can choose the line of learning and level for a learner's Diploma, along with the qualifications and achievements that will contribute to it, and then check that the combination is valid.

If the programme of study is shown as valid, the learner can continue confident that, as long as they complete all the components, they will be eligible to claim a Diploma.

If the programme of study is shown as invalid then, provided that the check is done at an early stage, the learner will be able to change their programme and recover the lost time on their new course.

To access the Diploma Validator, go to www.qcda.gov.uk/diplomavalidator. 

More information about the Diploma Validator and how it can be used with the Diploma learner study plan is available here.

You can also search our FAQs.

Further information

For more information about how DAS works, see our Diploma aggregation service factsheet in the 'Related documents' section to the right of this page.

For more information about how the Learner registration service works, visit www.miap.gov.uk/products/lrs/

Release 3 batch file templates

If you have data in electronic format, for example from your management information system, you may wish to use batch files to create or amend DAS learner accounts as an alternative to managing single or multiple learners through your web browser.

The example templates below are available to help DAS learner administrators to manage learner accounts via a file upload when using Release 3.

Each .csv file follows a specific format. Columns and data must be in the correct format so that you can upload files successfully.

Templates for Learner Data Maintainers:

csv template to create new learner accounts and add a Diploma

Note: Where batch files require a learner's date of birth, this must be provided in the format ccyy-mm-dd, for example, 1994-01-31. You can see from the example batch file above that Excel converts the date format and removes leading zeros when you reopen a saved .csv file. If you are editing an existing .csv file, you may need to re-enter dates before saving.

csv template to amend Diploma details on existing learner accounts

.csv template to add new Diplomas to existing learner accounts

Templates for PLTS and Work Experience Recorders:

.csv template to record or withdraw completion of personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS)

.csv template to record or withdraw completion of work experience

Templates for Learner Diploma awarding body Relationship Managers:

.csv template to register or deregister Diplomas with a Diploma awarding body (DAB)

.csv template to set or withdraw an intention to claim (ITC) for Diplomas with a DAB

.csv template to initiate or withdraw a claim for Diplomas from a DAB