Skills for Life Flags Data Definition 2009/2010

A_SFL, L_SFL

DATA DEFINITION

1. Skills for Life Flag for aim and learner.

PURPOSE

2. This indicates if an aim or learner counts towards the 2010 Skills for Life target, as classified by the Learning Aim Database (LAD).

RELEVANT COLLECTIONS

ILR (ER)
ILR (LR)
ILR (ASL)
ILR (UFI)
ILR (ESF SR)

SOURCE DATA

3. The following variables are used as source data for the calculation of the Skills for Life Flags.

Field Name	Label	Dataset
A09	A09 Aim Reference	Aims Standard File
A_SFL	A_SFL Counts Towards Skills for Life Target	Analytical LAD*
A_ACTIVE	A_ACTIVE Aim Active for the current academic year	Aims Standard File

* The oracle LAD database refers to this field as basic_skill.

DERIVED VARIABLES AND DATASETS

4. The definition produces the following derived variable(s)

Field Name	Label	Dataset
A_SFL	A_SFL Counts Towards 2010 Skills For Life Target	Aims Standard File
L_SFL	L_SFL Learner Counts Towards 2010 Skills For Life Target	Learner Standard File, Aims Standard File, Framework and Aims Standard File, HE Standard File

VALUES

5. The table below outlines the categories for A_SFL, L_SFL

Value	Label
-1	Not Applicable/Not Known*
0	No
1	Yes

*Applies to system missing values and where there are non-active aims. Only applicable at learner level.

DETAILED DEFINITION

6. A LAD field, Counts Towards Skills For Life Target (A_SFL), is used to indicate the aim as counting towards the 2010 Skills For Life target. If an aim does count towards the 2010 Skills for Life target, the Skills For Life Aim Flag (A_SFL) has a value of 1.

7. If the learner has a Skills for Life Aim Flag (A_SFL) for any aim then the learner has a value of 1 in the Skills For Life Learner Flag (L_SFL). This excludes those aims that are not included for analytical purposes (using A_ACTIVE).

Skills for Life Flags Sample Code

1. The following SPSS code is provided to illustrate the Skills for Life Flags data definition.

A_SFL

2. The following table shows the steps required to derive A_SFL, L_SFL

Step	Condition	Action/Action if true	Action if false
1	Does A_SFL =1	Set A_SFL to 1	Set A_SFL to 0

3. The following SPSS code illustrates how to derive A_SFL.

/*Calculates whether an aim is a skills for life aim 
/* Matches the current working file (aims file) with the Analytical Lad dataset by A09 (Qualification Aim Reference).
GET FILE=’………………….AIMS data set.’.
SORT CASES BY A09.
MATCH FILES /FILE=*
 /TABLE=’………………….Analytical LAD data set’
 /BY A09.
VARIABLE LABELS A_SFL ‘A_SFL Counts towards 2010 Skills for Life Target
VALUE LABELS A_SFL
0 ‘No’
1 ‘Yes’.

4. The following SQL code illustrates how to derive A_SFL:

select L01, L03, A05, A.A09 , case when B.A_SFL=1 then 1 else 0 end as A_SFL from ILR0910_E_AIMS A left outer join LAD_0910 B on A.A09=B.A09

select

L01, L03, A05, A.A09
, case when B.A_SFL=1 then 1 else 0 end as A_SFL

from

ILR0910_E_AIMS A

left outer join

LAD_0910 B

on A.A09=B.A09

L_SFL

5. The following table shows the steps required to derive L_SFL

Step	Condition	Action/Action if true	Action if false
1	Is A_ACTIVE=1	Go to 2	Set L_SFL to -1
2	Is any A_SFL=1	Set L_SFL to 1. Go to 3	Set L_SFL to 0 Go to 3
3	Are all A_SFL=-1	Set L_SFL to -1

Step	Condition	Action/Action if true	Action if false
1	Does L_SFL contain a value	None	Set L_SFL = -1
2	Does L_ACTIVE=0	Set L_SFL = -1	None

6. The following SPSS code illustrates how to derive L_SFL.

/* Calculating 2010 Skills for life at Learner Level.
/*Only aims where A_ACTIVE=1 are selected
/* Data is aggregated by Provider Number (L01) and Learner Reference Number (L03) and the maximum basic skills taken.
SELECT IF A_ACTIVE=1. 
AGGREGATE OUTFILE=’…L_SFL.SAV’
 /PRESORTED
 /BREAK=L01 L03
 /L_SFL 'L_SFL Learner Counts Towards 2010 Skills for Life Target'=MAX(A_SFL).
GET FILE ‘…………Learner data set’.
SORT CASES L01 L03.
MATCH FILE
/FILE= *
/TABLE=’…… L_SFL.SAV’
/BY L01 L03.
RECODE L_SFL (SYSMIS=-1).
VALUE LABELS L_SFL
-1 ‘Not Applicable/Not Known’ 
0 ‘No’
1 `Yes`.

7. The following SQL code illustrates how to derive L_SFL:

select B.L01, B.L03 , case when L_SFL_qry is NULL then -1 else L_SFL_qry end as L_SFL from ( select L01, L03, count(A05) as aims , max(A_SFL) as L_SFL_qry from ILR0910_L01_AIMS where A_ACTIVE=1 group by L01, L03, A_ACTIVE )T right outer join ILR0910_L01_LEARNER B on T.L01=B.L01 and T.L03=B.L03 order by B.L01, B.L03

select

B.L01, B.L03
, case when L_SFL_qry is NULL then -1 else L_SFL_qry end as L_SFL

from
(
select

L01, L03, count(A05) as aims
, max(A_SFL) as L_SFL_qry

from

ILR0910_L01_AIMS

where A_ACTIVE=1

group by

          L01, L03, A_ACTIVE
     )T
     right outer join
         ILR0910_L01_LEARNER B

on T.L01=B.L01 and T.L03=B.L03

order by

B.L01, B.L03

Date last modfied: 02nd December 2009