Project Team Meeting and Updated Project Plan

The project team met at Coleg Sir Gar today and agreed plans for the next phase of the digitised WBL system development. Following the data mapping exercise and the evaluation of system functionality, plans were agreed for updating and refinement of the JOOMLA content management system and associated database. Lewis Jones will be implementing the technical changes in collaboration with Tony Toole who carried out the evaluation and continues to liaise with the system stakeholders, particularly the WBL Training Advisors. The aim will be to have the whole system complete and tested by mid-November when the piloting by partners can begin. The intention is to have a practical workshop at that time, possibly 16th November though this has yet to be confirmed, for partners who will be engaged in the pilot exercise. The project plan has been updated to reflect how the progress of the project is unfolding in practice. The changes are relatively minor and can be viewed in V2 of the project plan shown below. There is no change in either project deliverables or overall timescale. PotsPan Project Plan v2

Data Field Mapping and Workflow Optimisation

Current project activity is concentrating on the mapping of core data fields across the various WBL forms that use them in order to optimise workflows. One of the objectives of the digitisation of the WBL administrative system was to eliminate the repetitive input of the same data on different forms (a major frustration and inefficiency of the paper based system). The main source of this repetition is with core data relating to the three main stakeholders in the system: the learner, the employer and the training provider. The plan is to maintain a database core record for each of these which can then be used to populate all the forms that use that data. Simple yes? Not in practice! Each of the 25 or more forms that are part of the system were created at different times for different purposes by different people. Hence the structure of the data fields and their interpretation vary from one form to another. The current exercise involves an alignment of the interpretation of core data fields and a change in the way the information is reported on the forms so that the anticipated efficiencies can be achieved. This is being carried out in consultation with the stakeholders to ensure that the resulting system meets their administrative needs.