Guidance

FSQ Results Progress : guide to the data submission process

Published 21 September 2022

This guidance was withdrawn on 24 January 2024

This guidance page has been withdrawn because FSQ results data is no longer required or collected.

Introduction

In order to fulfil our regulatory and accreditation functions as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, we require awarding organisations to provide exams delivery data for regulated qualifications.

What data will be collected?

Data should relate to the results for Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 Functional Skills Qualifications.

When will data be collected?

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule, which is agreed and maintained by Ofqual’s data services team.

Updates to formats and guidance

This guidance document will be updated regularly. Any changes to procedure will be incorporated into the guidance document.

How to submit your data

Your data should be submitted to us in CSV format. Please refer to the ‘Connecting to Ofqual’s data portal and uploading data’ document on our web page to help you submit your files to us. If you need to ask us about a data submission please contact the Data Services team, please do not send your data files via email to Data Services or to any other Ofqual email address, or via Contact the Regulator in the Portal.

Uploaded data

Once files have been successfully uploaded, the data will be validated against a set of validation rules. These are detailed in the sections below. If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into our systems and you will receive email confirmation. If the file is unsuccessful at any stage of validation you will receive an email with details of the validation failure. Please correct your file and resubmit it.

Amendments to data

Ofqual staff will not alter data once it has been submitted. If you find an error or omission after you have had a successful upload, please notify us by email. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

How your data will be used

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities and, where required, to produce Official Statistics to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

General completion guidelines

The relevant date listed on the second page of the above letter should be entered into the ReportingDate field (Field 1) for each submission. This means that the reporting date will change with each subsequent submission. This is to allow us to track progress over time.

All learners who have either been issued a result for a Functional Skills qualification (either following completion of their assessments or through a Teacher Assessment Grade) or who have had an application for a Teacher Assessment Grade (TAG) submitted at the time of each data submission should be included.

In each subsequent data submission, the data should contain all learners included in a previous submission (with updated information where applicable), and any new learners and results that meet the above criteria since the last submission of data.

Once a learner has completed all their learning aims, you should not remove them from the dataset as this would hide the progress you have made towards issuing results.

One row should be given for each result per learner. Where a learner has multiple attempts and multiple results, there should be a line for each result.

Values for each field are compulsory. Some fields permit a value of ‘-2’ to indicate where the field is not applicable or not available for the row of data in question. Where a value of -2 is not permitted it is mandatory to provide a valid value for the field.

File format

The file must be CSV format and the first row must be headers as displayed in the ‘Name’ column of the table below. The subsequent rows must have the values of the data to be reported which must match the format and validation rules below.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
ReportingDate	Date the file was due to be submitted to Ofqual regardless of when it was actually uploaded (this date will be made available by Ofqual)	1	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits)
AwardingOrganisation	Name of the awarding organisation	2	^.{1,100}$	One to 100 characters accepted
CentreNCN	Centre’s National Centre Number as allocated by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ)[footnote 1]	3	^\d{1,5}$	Valid NCN code. Up to 5-digit integer accepted. -2 also accepted where centre does not have a NCN
CentreURN	Centre’s Unique Reference Number as assigned by the Department for Education	4	^\d{1,6}$	Valid Centre URN. Up to 6-digit integer accepted. -2 also accepted where centre does not have a URN
CentreIdentifierOther	Any other number allocated to the centre or assessment venue by individual awarding organisations. It must be provided if a candidate is registered to a centre and neither CentreURN nor CentreNCN are available[footnote 2]	5	^.{1,15}$	One to 15 characters accepted. -2 permitted where at least one of NCN or URN have been provided or for candidates who are not registered to a centre
UniqueCandidateIdentifier	Unique Candidate Identifier (JCQ code), where available[footnote 2]	6	^.{1,13}$	A valid UCI. Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted. -2 accepted where the candidate does not have a UCI
UniqueLearnerNumber	Unique Learner Number (ESFA code), where available	7	^.{1,10}$	One to 10 characters accepted. -2 accepted where the candidate does not have a ULN
UniquePupilNumber	Unique Pupil Number (UPN) for the candidate provided by the Department for Education	8	^.{1,13}$	A valid UPN. Alpha numeric 13 characters accepted. -2 accepted where the candidate does not have a UPN
CandidateIdentifierOther	Any other unique candidate number allocated by individual awarding organisation	9	^.{1,20}$	One to 20 characters accepted -2 permitted where at least one of UCI, ULN or UPN have been provided
FirstName	Candidate first name	10	^.{0,150}$	0 to 150 characters accepted
MiddleNames	Candidate middle name(s)	11	^.{0,150}$	0 to 150 characters accepted. Can be left blank where middle names are not known
Surname	Candidate surname or family name	12	^.{0,150}$	0 to 150 characters accepted
DOB	Candidate’s date of birth	13	^(19|20|29)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[- ](0[1-9]|[12[0-9]|3[01])$
QualificationNumber	This should be the unique identifier for the qualification as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated Qualifications, for example 123/1234/1	14	^.{1,10}$	Valid Qualification Number. One to 10 characters accepted
QualificationResultStatus	Whether or not a qualification grade has been determined for the candidate by the time of data submission, and whether that grade has been determined via an assessment or a Teacher Assessment Grade (TAG)	15	^(Qualificationresultdeterminedentirelyviaassessment|TAG(s)submitted:qualification resultawaitingAOprocessing|TAG(s)submitted:qualificationresultdeclined|TAG(s)submitted:qualificationresultprocessedandaccepted|Notapplicable:registrationwithdrawn|Qualification resultwithdrawn)$	Qualification result determined entirely via assessment. TAG(s) submitted: Qualification result awaiting AO processing. TAG(s) submitted: Qualification result declined. TAG(s) submitted: Qualification result processed and accepted. Not applicable: Registration withdrawn. Qualification result withdrawn.
EntryDate	For candidates whose results have been determined entirely by assessment, this should be the date that the candidate took the last assessment for their qualification (for example, for English, this should be the date the learner took their final assessment). Where the assessment date is not available, this should be the date that the assessment result was submitted by the centre. For candidates who have applied for one Teacher Assessment Grade (TAG), this should be the date that the application was received by the awarding organisation. For candidates who have applied for more than one TAG (for example, for English), this should be the date that the most recent application was received by the awarding organisation.	16	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[- ](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	Date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits)
ResultDate	The date that the result was issued to the centre (or candidate if result issued directly to candidate	17	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[ - ](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	Date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits) 2999-12-31 accepted if the result has not yet been issued
RemoteInvigilation	For candidates who sat any assessments (i.e., excluding any Teacher Assessment Grades), please indicate if the invigilation of any of these assessments within the qualification took place remotely or not	18	^(Y|N|-2)$	Accepted value: Y, N. -2 accepted where an application for a TAG has been made for the candidate

Contacts

For all queries relating to the data collection process, amendments to data previously provided, or for general guidance, please contact:

Data Services
Ofqual
Earlsdon Park
53-55 Butts Road
Coventry
CV1 3BH

Email: Data.Services@ofqual.gov.uk

1. To allow us to identify the centre please provide at least one of CentreNCN, CentreURN or CentreIdentifierOther. If more than one is collected, please provide as many as are available. ↩

2. To allow us to identify the learner please provide at least one of UniqueCandidateIdentifier, UniqueLearnerNumber, UniquePupilNumber or CandidateIdentifierOther. If more than one is collected, please provide as many as are available. ↩ ↩²