Audio lesson · 10 minutes
What validation does and does not do
Validation checks that the data is internally consistent and conforms to the specification. It does not check that the data is true, that the learner was eligible, or that the funding is correct.
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Chapters
- What validation checks
- A clean report is not a correct return
- Working an error report
Transcript
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Introduction
What validation does, and what it does not do. Validation checks that the data is internally consistent and conforms to the specification. It does not check that the data is true, that the learner was eligible, or that the funding is correct.
What validation actually checks
Rules check structure and internal consistency: that required fields are present given the other values recorded, that dates are in a sensible order, that codes are valid for the funding year, that combinations that cannot coexist do not. They cannot check anything they cannot see. Whether the learner actually attended, whether they were eligible, whether the hours were really delivered: none of that is visible to a rule.
A clean report is not a correct return
A learner who left in October and has never been withdrawn produces a perfectly valid record. Every field is present, every date is consistent, every code is allowed. The record says the learner is in learning, and it is wrong. This is why the monthly routine has to include checks that validation cannot do: learners in learning past their planned end date, aims ended with no outcome, claims without evidence.
How to work a validation error report
A report with two hundred failures usually has four or five causes. Working record by record takes days and fixes nothing permanently; working by cause takes hours and stops the errors recurring. Read the rule's own published wording before investigating. It usually identifies the cause immediately and saves an hour of guessing.
Read it instead
What validation does, and what it does not doThe written module carries the same content at three depths, with the worked examples, the pitfalls and the sources.
Sources
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