Guidance

Enter learning data: using the service

Published 5 November 2025

Applies to England

Enter learning data (ELD) is replacing the learner entry tool (LET). You can use the ELD service to create individualised learner records (ILRs) and manage learning data.

This guidance explains how to use the service.

How to access ELD

If you have access to the submit learner data service, you can start using ELD as soon as your funding model is added to it.

Providers should be able to use ELD immediately if they are:

• delivering funded apprenticeships only
• care to learn providers

To use ELD, assign the ‘submit learner data - enter learning data’ sub-service or role to your DfE Sign-in account. To do this, select:

1. ‘View and edit services on my account’.
2. Submit learner data service.

For further support, contact the customer help portal.

We are still developing this service. Your feedback will help us improve it.

What you can use the service for

In ELD you can:

• create courses and learner entries 
• add learners to courses 
• record learner completions, withdrawals, breaks in learning and restarts 
• add funding and monitoring data 
• import existing ILR files so you do not have to re-enter data
• export ILR files for submission to submit learner data

Adding courses

ELD works differently to LET. In ELD you add courses first, then add learners to those courses.

Creating courses helps you to manage your learners more easily. You’ll only need to add the course details once. These details can be applied to multiple learners, reducing the need to enter duplicate data. 

For example, when you add an apprenticeship course to the new service, you’ll add or select the: 

• course title – choose the name used to identify the course in the new service, which can be different to the standard name
• course type – for example, ‘Apprenticeship standard (Funding model 36)’
• start dates and planned end dates
• learning delivery postcode
• apprenticeship standard code
• learning aim details
• training price details
• assessment details

Course details are applied to any learners you add to that course. You can change details for individual learners if you need to – for example, their start and end dates.

Managing courses

You can access all courses from the ‘manage courses’ page. Each course has its own course overview page. You can review and change a course’s details, including its learning aims, from the course overview page.  

Make sure the course details are correct before you add any learners to the course. Any further changes you make to the course will only be applied to those learners who are added after you make the changes.

You can also remove a course from the service or remove learners from a course.

Adding learners

When you add a learner to the ELD service, you’ll need their: 

• name
• unique learner number (ULN) – use their personal details to search for this if you do not have it to hand, as the service uses the learning records service (LRS) to search for ULNs

You can change a learner’s details from the learner overview page.

The ‘add learner’ journey is split so that ELD can tailor the fields that are shown based on the type of course that the learner is doing.

When you find your learner in the LRS, you can add the learner’s course details specific to the funding model, for example, dates and delivery location.

You can then return to add the learner’s personal details, for example, disability and health information.

Adding learners to a course

You can add learners to a course as soon as you’ve added them to the service.

For example, to add a learner to an apprenticeship course, you’ll need details of their: 

• maths or English qualifications if they’re doing them 
• start and end dates – you can choose to use the course dates 
• off-the-job training hours 
• personal contact details
• disability and health information
• prior attainment
• employment status 

You can change some of the learner’s course details from the learner overview page.

If you make a mistake, or if the learner does not start, you can remove a learner from a course or from the ELD service completely.

Managing learners

You can manage a learner by recording their progress updates through the green ‘record an update’ button on the learner overview page.

The links on the right-hand side of the page can be used to manage additional data, for example:

• funding and monitoring data
• provider-specified data
• higher education (HE) data

You can also use these right-hand side links to:

• record payments
• add additional reference numbers

Adding a learning aim to a learner

When a learner has been added to a course, they will automatically have all the learning aims from that course assigned to them.

There may be single or multiple aims. You sometimes have the option to choose whether the learner is doing certain aims – for example, maths and English within apprenticeships, because not all learners have to do them.

If you want to add a learning aim to a learner, that is not already assigned to them, you can do that if those aims already exist on the course – for example, maths and English.

If the learning aim does not already exist on the course, add the aim to the course first, then add the aim to the learner.

Recording learner progress updates

You can manage learner progress and record status updates from the learner overview page by selecting ‘record an update’.

Only valid options will be shown for that learner. For example, there will be no option to record a currently withdrawn learner as complete. Once you’ve recorded an update, you’ll be able to see it in the learner overview.

Further guidance on what these terms mean are available from the Provider Support Manual. For example, recording apprenticeship programmes.

Completions

You can record a completion when a learner has finished their course.

For apprenticeships, this will be when a learner has completed either a learning aim or the whole course. Enter information about the learner’s learning aims first, then enter the programme aims.

All learning aims must be complete before the programme aim can be completed. For every aim that is complete, we ask what the outcome is. You can add the learner’s:

• learning actual end date
• actual off-the-job training hours
• achievement date, if known
• achievement outcome grade, if known

For learners who have completed their learning activities, but have not yet completed their end-point assessment, you can still record that they have entered the gateway period. Do this by recording a programme completion with the outcome ‘not yet known’.

Further guidance on recording apprenticeship standard completions is available.

Breaks in learning

You can record a break in learning when a learner is taking a temporary break from their course.

A break in learning must be agreed with the learner. You’ll need to provide:

• the last date of learning before the break
• supporting evidence of their intention to return

If you do not have this, you should record a withdrawal.

 Withdrawals

You can record a withdrawal when a learner is withdrawing from a learning aim or the whole course and has no intention of returning.

You’ll need the:

• withdrawal date
• reason for withdrawal

You can either withdraw a learner from all learning aims for the course or select the specific learning aims from which you want to withdraw the learner.

Restarts

You can record a restart for a learner after:

• an agreed break in learning
• a transfer
• a withdrawal

You’ll need their:

• new start and planned end dates
• changes to assessment and training prices
• funding details

You can select which learning aims you want to restart for the learner.

Reopens

You can reopen learning activities and record the learner as continuing if their current learning status has changed or is incorrect.

Adding funding and monitoring information

You can add funding and monitoring information to your learners to identify additional funding or funding characteristics.

Some funding and monitoring (FAM) codes belong in the learner details tab, for example:

• national learner monitoring (NLM)
• learner support reasons (LSR)

Some FAM codes belong to the learning aims in the course details tab, for example:

• learning support funding (LSF)
• enhanced apprenticeship funding (EEF)
• learning delivery monitoring (LDM)

Adding provider-specified data

You can add provider-specified data that you collect for your own use.

You can choose to add the data either to the learner details or to the learning aims. The data will then be shown on the learner overview page.

Adding higher education data

You can add HE data to your learners by completing the HE learning aim details page.

Use the HE data link on the right-hand side of the learner overview page. You can then add:

• any optional HE learner details
• HE data to any additional learning aims you’ve added

Removing learners from a course

If a learner has left their course, record this by withdrawing them from the course. Do not remove them from the course.

If you remove a learner from a course they will not be included with the course aims in your exported ILR file. This may have an impact on the funding you receive.

The only reason you should remove a learner from a course is if you’ve added them to a course in error.

Recording a payment

You can record employer co-investment payments for each of your learners. Any changes or additions to training or assessment prices can be updated from the learner overview.

Recording additional reference numbers

You can record any previous UK provider reference numbers (UKPRNs) or previous learner reference numbers (LRNs) that were associated with your learner.

Changing employer

If you need to record a change of employer for an apprentice, you can add a new employment status from the learner overview.

On the learner overview course details tab, add a new training price record (TNP3) for the apprenticeship and assessment price record (TNP4), if applicable.

Importing files

When you use ELD to import a file, it will only import FM36 apprenticeship standard and FM82 Care to Learn data until other funding models are added to the service. 

Only valid learners will be imported, so you should make sure your file is correct before importing.

The service will only import required fields and will ignore any fields not specified in the ILR as required for apprenticeship standards.

For example, GCSE maths qualification grades will not be imported. This follows the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) data-minimisation principle of only processing data that is necessary. LRNs will be retained.

Any learning aims in your file that are part of a programme, for example apprenticeships, will also be included when the course is created. You’ll be able to remove any unwanted aims from the course before adding new learners.

You should be aware that importing a file will overwrite all your current data.

You can only import data into ILR years that are open. If you have a 2526 file from LET, you can import this into ELD, but it will delete and replace any previously entered 2025 to 2026 data. You will need to re-add any new learners.

Importing a file will always replace any previous data for the year you are importing to.

In ELD, each academic year will only allow you to import files with a matching year in the filename, for example 2526.

Exporting files

To be able to submit your ILR return to the submit learner data service you’ll need to export your ILR file from ELD. The export will only include those learners and learning aims that show any activity within the year you’re exporting.

If you have a learner that has achieved from the previous year, that learner would not be included in this year’s data export.

After you have exported your learners, upload your ILR file to the submit learner data service. You should check your rule-violation reports to ensure that the expected number of learners and learning delivery records are in your ILR file.

Multi-year selection

Unlike LET which was year-specific, ELD allows you to manage your data in 2 different years.

When making changes, for example creating a new course, make sure you do this in the correct ILR year – check the year on the top right-hand-side of the page.

The dual running period is between August and October. This is when 2 years are open for submission. During this time, you will have a choice of which year you want to manage your data in.

You can change years in ELD, but you’ll only be able to edit data in current active years.

For years that have closed and are no longer open for submission, your data will be read-only.

Migrating data

If you’re a new user, you will not have any data to migrate.

If you’re an existing user, when R01 opens for the new ILR year, you’ll be given the option to migrate your data from the existing year into the new year.

You can choose to do this immediately or wait until you’ve got your current year data more stable.

You can only migrate your data once each year. If you have already run a migration in ELD, you are not currently able to run it again.

The migration function in ELD will determine which learners should be migrated from one year to the next, for example continuing learners.

You can set up new learners in the new academic year without migrating data. You should not add any existing learners into the new year that will be migrated, for example continuing learners.

Migrating your existing learners will bring over all their data. You can then make any updates needed from the learner overview page.

Links to ILR specification

Many pages in the new service have contextualised links to relevant supporting information in the ILR specification.

Validation of entries

The service includes some validation of entries to reduce the chance of entering incorrect or invalid data. Check the rule-violation reports in submit learner data when you submit your ILR file.