Data quality policy
REVISION DATES: Policy created November 2021
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to outline NCVER’s approach to managing data quality issues across the national VET administrative collections after a collection window has closed.
Scope and applicability
This policy applies to data submitted to all national VET administrative collections including: the National VET Provider Collection, the National Apprentice and Trainee Collection, the National VET Funding Collection, and the National VET in Schools Collection.
Data submission windows and due dates are in scope of this policy and are outlined via the RTO Hub on NCVER’s Portal.
This policy does not cover changes to data for the USI transcript service. Any changes required to the transcript service can be facilitated via the USI transcript update tool or through regular AVETMISS reporting.
Objectives
The objectives of this policy are to specify the actions and responsibilities of data submitters when data quality issues have been identified after the collection windows has closed.
Data quality is an important element of NCVER’s role as the custodian of the national VET administrative collections and surveys. NCVER’s success is measured by the comprehensiveness and quality of its statistical collections, and on the quality and relevance of its data.
Definitions
- Data agency – for the purpose of this policy data agencies are referred to as state training authority, board of studies or training organisations.
- Data Resubmission - the subsequent submission of data after a collection window has closed by a data agency.
- Data Remediation – an internal NCVER process to address data quality issues identified after the collection window has closed.
Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of every data agency to:
- submit AVETMISS quality compliant data to NCVER before the collection window has closed
- follow the Data Resubmission process outlined in this policy should data agencies or NCVER determine it necessary
It is the responsibility of NCVER to provide information, tools and services that assist data agencies to submit quality data that aligns with NCVER’s data quality principles, including:
- The publication of the AVETMISS standard that outlines data reporting requirements.
- The operation of a national customer service helpdesk (Client Services) to support data submitters with their data submission questions.
- The provision of a free online AVETMISS validation software tool (AVS) to help data agencies identify and fix data validation errors before submitting data to the national VET data collections.
- The provision of data quality checks and reports within AVS for state training authorities and board of studies.
Data resubmission process
All data resubmission requests after a collection window have closed will be considered on a case-by-case basis and will be informed by the impact on NCVER’s statistical outputs and related products. Requests for a resubmission will be required in writing to the Senior Data Quality Analyst, NCVER, dataquality@ncver.edu.au including the reason for the resubmission of data. NCVER may verify the discrepancy to help inform the best course of action.
If a resubmission is assessed as having material impact on statistical outputs and products, NCVER will negotiate with the data agency as to what the best course of action will be. This will be either,
- a revised set of data sent via AVS, by the relevant data agency, or
- a data remediation performed by NCVER to address the specific data quality issue.
NCVER will work with the data agency to recover any costs should it be deemed necessary by NCVER.