Getting your stats lodged: onCourse and AVETMISS

We have lots of new customers using the free version of onCourse you can download from our website purely to manage their government funding submissions. While we have embedded AVETMISS data collection within onCourse to make it compliant, we believe that it shouldn’t drive the way you do business. onCourse is an RTO Management tool, and lots of things RTOs need to do, like schedule rooms and tutors, market and sell courses, handle student payments, transfers and refunds have nothing to do with government statistical lodgement. onCourse has been designed to help you manage your business better – not just to make government statisticians happy (although we are good at doing that too!)

So if you want to just get your data in and out as quickly as possible (and leave all the fun stuff for later), consider this your onCourse AVETMISS Cliffs Notes. Make sure you are starting onCourse with a new datafile (rather than the built in testing file or sample file) before you start setting up all these details.

What do I have to lodge?

NCVER publishes the National AVETMISS VET Provider Specifications and AVETMISS Data Element Definitions If you don’t have a copy of these, I recommend downloading them for your reference.

Depending on the state where you are lodging, you will also need to meet some state specific variations. These can be found here:

New South Wales
Queensland
Victoria
Western Australia
South Australia
Tasmania
Australia Capital Territory
Northern Territory

Training Organisation (NAT00010) file

All the data in this file is collected in the onCourse general preferences window. Go to File > Preferences > General. Select the AVETMISS tab and enter the contact details of your business.

Training Organisation Delivery Location (NAT00020) File

These are your onCourse sites. Set up each site where you deliver training and enter the address details. You can ignore the latitude and longitude fields. onCourse will require you to create at least one room for each site (this has nothing to do with AVETMISS, it is part of our timetabling feature) so to make it simple, give each site a room with a generic name like ‘default’.

Course (NAT00030) File and Module/Unit of Competency (NAT00060) File

This information comes from the onCourse Course detail (what we call a ‘course’ in onCourse is different to what AVETMISS calls a course). When you create a new course in onCourse, go to the VET tab and add the Qualification and Unit(s) that you are delivering as part of this program. All the NTIS data is built in so when you start typing the code, the rest of the unit information will appear to select from the list. You can set up full qualification courses here or short courses with one or more units. As you add the units, add the nominal hours information to each unit.

Remember NTIS doesn’t record or publish the module details of state accredited courses. If you would like us to add the accredited course modules you deliver to onCourse, please contact us and we will import them for you at no additional charge.

To get students enrolled into courses, you will next need to create one or more classes, then use Quick Enrol to enrol your students.

More instructions on how to create a course
More instruction on how to create classes
More instruction on how to enrol students
Link to Victorian Nominal Hours

Client (NAT00080) File and Client Postal Details (NAT00085) File and Disability (NAT00090) File and Prior Educational Achievement (NAT00100) File

Client files in onCourse are called contacts. Create each of your students as contacts in onCourse, ensuring you fill in their address details and the data on the AVETMISS tab. Unique client identifiers are auto assigned. You don’t see these in the contact detail, but you can search on them from the contact window if you later get a validation error for one of your clients.

Enrolment (NAT00120) File

This is the biggest and most critical file – all the detail about what students have enrolled in and completed and whether or not your going to get payment for it. This information comes from a variety of locations in onCourse, so field by field we’ll cover it here:

Training Organisation Delivery Location Identifier
This is a reference back to the site you have set up.

Client Identifier
This is a reference back to the student you have set up.

Module/Unit of Competency Identifier
If you set the unit in the course, and have enrolled your student in a class, an outcome record will be created for each unit. But if you have a student who chooses a different elective or you need to add or remove units for an individual student, open the enrolment window, find the enrolment you want to modify and on the outcome tab, make the appropriate changes.

Qualification/Course Identifier
This is a reference back to the course you have set up.

Enrolment Activity Start Date and Enrolment Activity End Date
This is set in the class you have enrolled the student in. When you set up a class in onCourse, set a start date and time and and end date and time on the General tab.

If you need to modify the start or end date for an individual student, you can do it through the enrolment (as described above) or through the class window by looking on the Outcome tab and changing the date in the field for the student/unit combination of your choice.

Delivery Mode Identifier
This is set in the Class on the VET tab. You can also make changes for individual students on the Outcome list or through their individual enrolment.

Outcome Identifier – National
You can set the outcome identifier (we call it status) on the Outcomes tab in the Class window. If you select all the records in the list and right click on them, you can set them all to ‘Successful (20)’ and then go back and change the others that should be other statuses (like RPL or Not Yet Competent) one by one. Or you can set them all one by one, whichever you prefer.

Scheduled Hours
The scheduled hours reported are the nominal hours that you set in the unit of competency. If you added the nominal hours when setting up the course it will report here. You can override the Scheduled Hours in the individual outcome.

Funding Source – National
You can set this in the class window on the VET tab, but change it for each outcome in the class Outcomes tab or for each student in their Enrolment record on the General tab. Double click the outcome to see this field.

Commencing Course Identifier
We calculate this for you by comparing the student’s record to their previous enrolment records.

Training Contract Identifier – New Apprenticeships and Client Identifier – New Apprenticeships
This information can be entered on the General tab on the student Enrolment.

Study Reason Identifier
You can provide an answer to this question during the enrolment process, or after enrolment by going to the General tab on the student Enrolment.

VET in Schools Flag
This is always reported as N (for no).

Outcome Identifier – Training Organisation
This field is always exported as blank.

Funding Source – State Training Authority
You can enter this information in the Class VET tab or in the individual student’s outcome record on the Class Outcomes Tab or the Enrolment Outcomes tab. Double click the outcome to see this field.

Client Tuition Fee
This is the fee you charged the student at the time of enrolment. To charge a fee, set a class fee in the Class General tab. VET courses are usually GST exempt. During the enrolment process, you can charge the student the full fee or give them a manual discount if they meet fee exemption criteria. The fee they pay here is what is reported. Create a full cash payment for each student. Don’t worry about the invoices that are automatically created here – they have nothing to do with AVETMISS.

Fee Exemption/Concession Type Identifier
This is set in the student’s Enrolment record on the General Tab.

Purchasing Contract Identifier and Purchasing Contract Schedule Identifier
These are set in the class on the VET tab

Hours Attended
This is only used when a student withdraws from a unit without completing it. If you need to set the hours attended you can find the field in the Outcome record on either the Class Outcomes Tab or the Enrolment Outcomes Tab. Double click the outcome to see this field.

State Specific NAT000120 fields

Some states have added extra fields to the AVETMISS standard. These are the ones were have added to onCourse. Please let us know if you are asked to provide something else that is not in the list below so we can add it to onCourse.

• (NSW) Booking ID and (NSW) Course Site ID
  These are set in the Class window on the VET tab.

• (QLD) Full Time Learning Option
  In the Enrolment window on the General Tab there is a Full Time Flag (QLD).

• (VIC) Hours Attended
  This is only used when a student withdraws from a unit without completing it. If you need to set the hours attended you can find the field in the Outcome record on either the Class Outcomes Tab or the Enrolment Outcomes Tab. Double click the outcome to see this field called ‘Reportable Hours’.

• (VIC) Course Commencement Date
  The class start date is always exported here.

• (VIC) Eligibility Exemption indicator
  This is always exported as N (No).

• (VIC) VET FEE-HELP (Income Contingent Loan) Indicator
  This is always exported as N (No).

• (VIC) Industry code (ANZSIC)
  This field is exported as blank.

Qualification Completed (NAT000130) File

To set a student as having completed a qualification, you need to issue a Certificate for them. onCourse will create AQF compliant certificates for your students, but for the purposes of lodging AVETMISS, you don’t need to print or issue them. To create a Certificate record, open the certificate window and click plus. Type the name of the student and the qualification you wish to issue and choose the outcomes from the student’s record you wish to add to the certificate. Check the option “satisfies requirements for complete qualification” and save the record.

If you are exporting a NSW DET export, and have set all the outcomes for an enrolment (e.g. they are no longer blank) a NAT000130 file will be automatically created for you, even if you have not delivered a full qualification to the student. This is because NSW DET uses the NAT00130 file for a different purpose than the national standard.

More information on creating Certificates in onCourse

How to get your AVETMISS data out of onCourse

There are two ways to export your data. One is via a date based range and the other is by selecting one or more particular classes you want to export.

The date based export will export every outcome in your database (including non-VET outcomes) that have activity during the period you have selected. This type of export is useful for customers who need to report their entire business activity to a monitoring or funding agency. Choosing this type of export will automatically export an outcome of 70 for all outcomes which have end dates outside the reporting range you define. You never need to set an outcome of 70 in onCourse. All non-VET outcomes will also be exported as 81, unless you have manually defined them within onCourse as 82.

To access the date based export, go to File > Import/Export > Export AVETMISS….
Enter your date range and choose a location where you want to save the export files. A folder with a range of txt files will be created. Make sure you choose the ‘AVETMISS flavour’ for your choice of state or national exports.

The class based export is useful when you want to report a smaller group of outcomes (often one or more particular classes) for a special funding requirement, like for the Priority Places Program. To do this, open the class window and select the class(es) you wish to export by highlighting them. Then click on the cogwheel on the top right hand corner of the window and choose ‘AVETMISS Export’. Choose your save location and AVETMISS flavour. You will not export any outcomes as 70 using this method.

How to give your AVETMISS data to the people who want to pay you

Either of the methods above will have created a folder on your computer with text files, all with funny names like NAT00080 and NAT00130. These are things you need to give to the government to get paid. Often, you will need to upload them to a website where they will be validated.

For some types of lodgement you will also need to supply the NAT00085 file. This isn’t outlined above, but is essentially the same as the NAT00080 but with your students personal addresses and other contact details. It will be automatically generated when you create an AVETMISS export. Be aware of the privacy implications of supplying this file to third parties. We suggest only supplying it when it is a requirement of your funding.

Your local friendly funding body can help you from here on in if you encounter difficulties with their lodgement process.

More help with AVETMISS

Still finding AVETMISS lodgement overwhelming? ish offers annual support plans for onCourse that include AVETMISS assistance, or you can purchase hourly support. Contact us for more information or post your questions here.