Look beyond the SVTS validation

5 Reject Codes That You May Miss

At least once every month, training providers are required to successfully upload their training activity data for the current data collection year to SVTS. Once the files have been uploaded to SVTS, validation commences automatically and claim processing commences early the following morning. Training providers should check the Validation Outcomes report after every upload to identify, understand and address all errors for each student’s enrolment. They must ensure that any data errors are rectified before re-uploading to SVTS.

However, some claims can be rejected by SVTS, even if a subject enrolment and all of its associated client and other details have already passed all upload validation rules. The following article provides guidance on how to rectify five critical SVTS rejects that may skip your attention as they do not form part of the upload validation outcome.

Reject 21 – Claim has not been created within the allowable time from the Module Start Date

This reject code indicates that the claim has not been created within the allowable time from the Activity Start Date. Currently, the allowable time for claim creation is 60 days. This simply means that Training Providers must record in their Student Management System that the subject has commenced and report this to SVTS within 60 days from the actual activity start date. If this activity is reported outside the 60 day timeframe, Reject 21 will be triggered and SVTS will not pay any funds for that subject.

Example

Training activity reported late to SVTS is mainly due to not uploading as often as you should, or Evidence of Participation (EOP) being received by data administrators too late. It is strongly recommended that you complete at least a couple of uploads each month, including your final upload for each month. This is good practice for validating your data more often and keeping it as accurate as possible. In addition, you should consider applying strict timeframes to your trainers and assessors for submitting EOP to your administration department. This will eliminate incidents where attendance rolls or other types of EOP sit with your trainers for too long and, as a result, your admin team is unable to report the activity commencement of corresponding subjects within the 60 days.

It is also recommended that you retain the original Activity Start Date until the subject is finalised and resulted. Bear in mind that every time you change the Activity Start Date and report the subject to SVTS again, the previously created claim becomes inactive and a new one is created. In fact, you are reporting the activity start for the subject in question again for the first time. This will trigger a Reject 21 if the modified Activity Start Date is more than 60 days in the past. To prevent this from happening, you need to verify and confirm that Evidence of Participation is available for each subject to support the Activity Start Date before lodging a student statistical report.

If you would like to track any potential subjects that may result in a Reject 21 prior to uploading to SVTS, you can use your Student Management System (SMS) reporting functionality to generate reports that display information in relation to subjects and their activity start dates. Most student management systems are capable of generating such reports and if you are unsure on how to build them, then your SMS vendor should be able to assist you with this.

Reject 27 – A valid outcome hasn’t been reported in required time frame (90 days from completion)

This reject is triggered when Training Providers do not report a valid final outcome and more than 90 days have passed since the subject Activity End Date. It is triggered against subjects reported with Code 70 – Continuing Enrolments. This code is used when the student has engaged in learning activity but has not completed all the training and assessment criteria by the end of the collection period, therefore the training activity is still in progress. When reporting subjects with Code 70 – Continuing Enrolments, Training Providers are required to report an Activity End Date on which the training and assessment for the subject in question is expected to be completed. A valid final outcome must be reported within 90 days of that Activity End Date.

The following valid final outcomes are referenced in the Victorian VET Student Statistical Collection Guidelines:

• 20 – Competency Achieved/Pass
• 25 – Competency Achieved/Pass as determined via Gap Training and Assessment
• 30 – Competency Not Achieved/Fail
• 40 – Withdrawn/Discontinued
• 51 – Recognition of Prior Learning – granted
• 52 – Recognition of Prior Learning – not granted
• 53 – Recognition of Current Competency – granted
• 54 – Recognition of Current Competency – not granted
• 60 – Credit Transfer/National Recognition
• 61 – Superseded Subject
• 81 – Non assessable enrolment – Satisfactorily completed
• 82 – Non assessable enrolment – Withdrawn or not Satisfactorily completed

Example

The Department will recover any funds paid for any relevant subjects (other than for delivery of Approved Training Schemes to Apprentices and Trainees) where no valid final Outcome identifier – National is reported within 90 days from the Activity End Date. Subjects reported with Code 70 – Continuing Enrolments and with an Activity End Date in the past but no more than 90 days back will be flagged by SVTS with the following validation warning:

120058: A valid final Outcome Identifier – National must be entered for all subjects scheduled for completion in the current year by the final upload for the collection year

As soon as 90 days elapses from the Activity End Date and no valid final outcome is reported, the above warning will switch to Reject 27, and all funds paid will be recovered by SVTS.

Example

Your Student Management System should be able to generate a report displaying information about subjects and their activity end dates so you can track those subjects with a Code 70 outcome and an Activity End Date in the past. If you extend Activity End Dates often as a preventative measure for triggering Reject 27, ensure that this action is taken prior to Reject 27 being triggered for the first time. Once Reject 27 is triggered, any funds recovered by the Department will not be paid back to you, even if you extend the Activity End Date. Where funds are recovered as a result of a Reject 27, if a valid final Outcome identifier is subsequently reported for that subject by the end of the data collection year, then the Department will pay funds to the Training Provider to which it is entitled.

The final outcome identifier must be reported with an Activity End Date which reflects the date on which training activity and/or assessment ended and must be in the current collection year.

Reject 31 – Missing student contact information

This reject ensures that at least one phone number is provided for a student (home, mobile or work).  If no student phone number is provided, the reject will be triggered, and the Department will not pay any funds associated with the student’s enrolment. The Department will withhold the payment until a phone number is reported to SVTS.

Example

You must ensure that the relevant standard enrolment questions for Victoria are included in your enrolment form. Training Providers using an online enrolment platform must ensure that at least one of the phone fields are labelled as mandatory and students cannot finalise their enrolment unless they provide this information.

Failing to address Reject 31 in a timely manner may lead to a Reject 21 which will most likely result in the permanent loss of the claimed funds. This will happen where a phone number is not reported to SVTS within 60 days from the subject activity start date.

Example

Reject 32 – Missing or Invalid Unique Student Identifier (USI)

This reject ensures that a USI is provided at program commencement. This reject will verify the USI provided against the USI Registry. The verification process compares student name, date of birth and USI. If the USI is not provided or the verification against the USI Registry fails, the reject will be triggered. The Department will withhold the payment until a valid USI is reported to SVTS.

Example

You must ensure that your organisation uses a USI compatible Student Management System which interacts directly with the USI Registry System using web services. Most USI compliant Student Management Systems allow you to verify USIs individually or submit a batch of students simultaneously for USI verification. You must ensure that every USI is verified in your system prior to uploading to SVTS. Bear in mind though that SVTS does not rely on your SMS’s verification and conducts its own verification against the USI registry.

Failing to address Reject 32 in a timely manner may lead to a Reject 21 which will probably result in the permanent loss of the claimed funds. This will occur when a valid USI is not reported to SVTS within 60 days from the subject actual Activity Start Date.

Example

Reject 32 will also be triggered if a previously reported valid USI becomes invalid due to changes made by the student on the USI registry (e.g. USI deactivation, change of surname etc.). This can trigger a Reject 32 weeks or months after the enrolment was reported for the first time and government funds were successfully claimed. In this rare scenario, correcting the student’s details or reporting a new valid USI may rectify Reject 32 but it may not be enough to recover any funds taken back by the Department. This will happen if the rectification does not take place within 60 days from the subject Activity Start Date. The outcome will be a Reject 21 which will not be possible to address unless you submit an enquiry to the Department via the SVTS.

Example

Reject 19 – Module start date is in a previous collection year and the module is being uploaded for the first time (i.e. no claim payments).

Every subject enrolment that a student commences needs to be reported to SVTS by the end of the collection year in which it commenced. In addition, at least one month of training delivery must be paid in order for the subject enrolment to be reported and claimed as a continuing subject enrolment in subsequent years.

This is a common reject that Training Providers get when they do not report training activity that started in December by the required date. Training activity that commences in December must be reported to SVTS for the first time as part of December’s upload and not as part of the End of Year reporting, to ensure that the first month of the delivery (December) is paid as part of December’s payment.

Example

Therefore, the reporting cut-off date for delivery that started in the current calendar year is December’s final upload and not the 15th of January of the next calendar year. The Department highly recommends that Training providers have all data reported as accurately as possible by December, and only make minimal adjustments in early January of the next calendar year, if required.

Example