On Thurs 7^th December 2017, a new password policy will be introduced to the MAO site for all users. In an effort to guarantee that the data held within the MAO database is kept as securely as possible you will be required to change your password.
Your new password should contain the following characteristics:

 

• Contain as least 12 alphanumeric characters
• Contain both upper and lower case letters
• Contain at least one number (0-9)
• Contain at least one special character (!,!$%^&*()_+|~-=\`{}[]:”;'<>?,/)

Passwords containing the above characteristics are considered to be strong.

 

Please read the below sections for further guidance on password creation and best practices –

 

Password Creation

1. 1. All passwords should be reasonably complex and difficult for unauthorised people to guess. Users should choose passwords that are at least twelve characters long and contain a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and other special characters.
   2. In addition to these requirements, users should also use common sense when choosing passwords. They must avoid basic combinations that are easy to crack. For example “password”, “password1” and “pa$$w0rd” are all equally bad from a security perspective.
   3. Users should choose unique passwords for all of their system accounts, with meaning only to the user who chooses it.
   4. If the security of a password is in doubt – for example, if it appears that an unauthorised person has logged into the account – the password must be changed immediately
   5. Default passwords-such as those created for new users when they start or those that protect new systems when they are initially set up-must be changed as quickly as possible

 

Poor or weak passwords have the following characteristics:

 

1. 1. Contain less than eight characters
   2. Contain personal information such as birthdates, addresses, phone numbers or names of family members, pets, friends and fantasy characters.
   3. Contain work-related information such as building names, system commands, sites, companies, hardware or software
   4. Contain number patterns such as aaabbb, qwerty, zyxwvuts or 123321

 

Protecting Passwords

 

1. 1. Users should never share their passwords with anyone else in their organisation, including co-workers, managers, admin assistants, IT Staff members etc. Everyone who needs access to the MAO system should be given their own unique password.
   2. Users should never share their passwords with any outside parties, including those claiming to be representatives of a business partner with a legitimate need to access the MAO system.
   3. Users should take steps to avoid phishing scams and other attempts by hackers to steal passwords and other sensitive information.
   4. Users should refrain from writing down passwords and keeping them at their workstations.

 

If you have any queries relating to this or concerns that your password integrity may be compromised please do not hesitate in contacting the System Support Team or 0300 303 4444.
 

 

The UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT) is to become the Sector Skills Body for the Fashion & Textiles industry.

 

UKFT will take over the management of current Apprenticeship frameworks with the responsibility of both registration and certification of Apprentices in England, Scotland and Wales and work with devolved nation’s stakeholders, to ensure that National Occupational Standards and Apprenticeship provision for the sector are maintained and developed.

 

The transfer of responsibility from Creative Skillset to UKFT goes live on 1^st November 2017.

 

UKFT is the most inclusive British network for fashion and textile companies in the UK. We bring together designers, manufacturers, agents and retailers to promote their businesses and our industry, both in the UK and throughout the world. UKFT is in a unique position, representing businesses from spinning, weaving and knitting, right through to catwalk.

 

Adam Mansell CEO of UKFT:

 

“With industry skills and training being a huge part of UKFT’s commitment to the sector, this is very welcome news. We are proud to take over from Creative Skillset, which has supported the industry since 2010 and we thank them for the achievements made during that time. It is extremely important to ensure the management and certification of Apprenticeships and other vocational qualifications is closely aligned to the needs of the industry.”

 

Mark Froud, Managing Director, Federation for Industry Sector Skills & Standards (FISSS): 

 

“We look forward to working with UKFT; being close to the Employers is critical and they have their trust and respect. UKFT has a strong approach to ensuring that Apprenticeships and training are kept up to date in what is an increasingly fast paced world.”
Seetha Kumar CEO of Creative Skillset:
“Creative Skillset would like to thank the employers and professionals who have been involved in developing standards and frameworks for Fashion and Textiles over the past 7 years. We wish UKFT the very best of luck as they continue the crucial job of supporting Apprenticeship and vocational training in the Fashion and Textiles sector.”
For further information please contact:
Tamara Rizvi:  tamara.rizvi@ukft.org 0207 843 9460
 

A new validation for National Insurance (NI) Numbers was introduced into MAO on 24th October 2017. This has been introduced to prevent the increasing number of duplicate NI Numbers appearing on the system. If an apprentice has been entered onto MAO previously, the forename, surname and NI Number fields for any new records will need to match the existing record exactly. If you enter an apprentice and the NI Number matches another record in a different name you will see the following error message.

 

 

The quickest way to resolve any NI Number errors is to check your own MAO account to see if you have entered the apprentice’s name differently in the past. To search your account you can type the NI Number into the ‘Keyword’ field on MAO. If this does not solve your issue then the System Support Team are on hand to help via the helpdesk. It could be that another training provider has entered the apprentice’s details in a different format for a previous apprenticeship which the System Support Team can help you to resolve.

 

 

 

 

If we find any major discrepancies between NI Numbers we may ask you to provide evidence of your apprentice’s NI Number or change of name documentation before you can register them on MAO. Examples of acceptable evidence for NI Numbers is as follows:

 

• P45 or P60
• Letter from HM Revenue and customs confirming your National Insurance Number or regarding tax or tax credit.
• Bank statement showing payments by direct debit for class-2 National Insurance contributions, or benefits payment received showing your NINo on the statement, for example, Incapacity Benefit or State Pension.
• Payslips, salary statement or works pension statement (as long as it shows your NINo)
• Letter that the Pension Service or Jobcentre Plus has sent to you (not handwritten)
• NINo Card (not handwritten)
• Marriage certificate or Deed Poll (name change)

If you have any further questions in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact the MAO Support Team.

 

 

 

On Monday 21^st of November, the MA Online system will receive its latest update. We do not anticipate any system downtime during the update, however, you may notice performance issues should you log in between 08:00 and 08:30.  The following new features and improvements will be introduced:

 

MA Online Summary Report

 

The MA Online Summary Report is a downloadable PDF that collates all the key information about an Apprentice into a one easy to read document. The report is ideal for printing for your paper records or if you need to quickly review the status of the Apprentice.

 

You can find the Summary report at the bottom left of the Basic Information tab of every Apprentice record.

 

 

Centre ID

 

Skills Development Scotland has advised us that they are now requesting MA Online Centre ID numbers for their new FIPS system. This number has always been present in MA Online but has never been visible to Centre users. The centre ID is now visible within Organisation Details which is available to main administrators only. To access your organisation details please login as normal and click the ‘organisation details’ tab at the bottom of the screen.

 

If you are unsure if you are the main administrator for your MA Online account, please contact the relevant Certification Body.

 

 

Notifications- Bulk view and select action

 

We are aware that it can be tricky to keep on top of your MA Online notifications so we have made it easier to view more notifications on screen at any one time. You can now choose to view up to 100 notifications at once and can now select all before completing regular actions such as Mark as Read, Mark as Unread and Delete.

 

 

Unique Login Sessions

 

As part of our routine security updates, you will no longer be able to access MA Online at the same time using the same login across different devices. This means that users who regularly share log-ins will need to ensure they have their own unique log-in for the system.

The main administrator for your account can create additional log-ins for colleagues by accessing MA Online as normal, clicking the users tab at the bottom of the screen and selecting ‘Add User’.

 

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has recently published the outcome of its review of the contribution paid from public funds towards the cost of training Modern Apprentices. SDS is responsible for the administration of Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland; and this involves setting the appropriate public funding contribution for more than 80 Modern Apprenticeship frameworks. Contribution rates for the next five years have now been set. The results of the consultation can be found at Skills Development Scotland – Modern Apprenticeship Funding Rates.

 

Thank you to all the users who have updated their spreadsheet of MA Online v1 apprentices and returned them to us to be registered on MA Online v2. Over 5500 apprentices have been re-registered and are now ready for certification. If you believe you have returned your spreadsheet but the apprentices have yet to appear on MA online v2 then please contact the MA Online Support Team as soon as possible. If you have received your spreadsheet but do not wish to transfer any apprentices then we would be grateful if you could let us know by replying to the original email or contacting the MA Online Support Team.

 

Thanks to your efforts we are now able to set a closing date for transferring apprentices over to MA Online v2. In order to have the transfers completed on time, you will need to return your spreadsheet to us no later than 3pm on the 30th of January 2015. If you do not return your spreadsheet to us by this date, you will need to re-enter the apprentices onto MA Online v2 manually.

 

As always, please contact the System Support Team if you have any queries or can provide any information that make expedite the process.

 

 

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Federation have been forced to find new hosting suppliers for our Websites and Online Certification Systems (ACE, ACW and MA Online v2). Unfortunately a delay with our new supplier has meant that the www.acecerts.co.uk domain has been placed offline temporarily. We are working to get the system back up and running as quickly as possible however MAO may be offline until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning (7th January). You will not be able to view the MAO website or access the system during this time. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we will keep you all informed of any developments throughout the day.

 

Whilst this current downtime was unexpected, we have essential maintenance scheduled to start at 9a.m on Friday 9th January. You will not be able to access www.acecerts.co.uk, www.acwcerts.co.uk and www.modernapprenticeships.org during this period of maintenance. We anticipate that this will be completed by 9a.m. on Monday 12th January and you will be able to access all websites as normal from this time.

 

We apologise again for the disruption caused by this maintenance and we thank you for your patience. If you have any questions please contact the System Support Team on 0300 303 4444 (option 1, option 1) and maonline@fisss.org.

 

 

On the 4th of November 2014 MA Online v1 will close and we will begin the process of transferring registered apprentices onto MA online v2 (MAO 2). This means that you will no longer be able to access the MA Online v1 system to view registered apprentices and claim full framework certificates.

 

What are the benefits of moving to MAO 2?

 

• All registered apprentices held on the same system for the first time
• MAO 2 is a modern database with enhanced functionality compared to MA Online v1
• The MA Online v1 database of Certificated apprentices will be held in-house by the Federation allowing for faster access to reprints and statistical data on historical apprentices

 

How will it all work?

 

At 5pm on the 4th of November all accounts on MA Online v1 will be suspended and you will no longer be able to access the system. On the week beginning 10th of November, the MA Online Support team will send you a report of all apprentices currently registered on MA Online that have yet to be certificated. In order to ensure that the information transferred to MAO 2 is as up to date as possible, we ask that you review this report carefully, deleting any apprentices that have withdrawn from training and will not be submitted for certification in the future. We also ask that you complete the missing mandatory information that is required for MAO 2. Once completed you will be asked to return this report to us to be checked and uploaded on your behalf. Full guidance on how to amend your reports will be provided and the MA Online Support Team will be on hand for all of your calls and queries, big or small.

 

What about the apprentices that have already been certificated from MA Online v1?

 

You will no longer be able to access the data held on the MA Online v1 system however you will be able to request reports directly from us. Please contact reportrequests@fisss.org for more details. If you need to request a reprint for an apprentice who has already been certificated on MA Online v1 then please continue to contact the relevant Certification Body to authorise this.

 

We appreciate that we are making these changes at very short notice however we believe that closing MA Online v1 will prove massively beneficial to all parties as it simplifies the registration and certification process for MA Apprentices. If you have any questions please contact the MA Online Support Team for more information.

 

From Monday 10th February you will have to complete 4 mandatory tabs when adding an apprentice.

 

Previously you had to complete;

 

– Basic Information

 

– Employer Details

 

– Identifiers

 

From Monday 10th February you will also have to complete;

 

– Framework

 

 

PLEASE NOTE

Under the Framework tab there are several rows that are yellow. These rows are mandatory for certification however when adding an apprentice you will need to leave these blank until the record has been created. Otherwise the information that you enter will be lost.

 

For full instructions please visit the Knowledge Base.

 

 

 

In line with the recent system developments we have updated the MA Online Bulk Upload Template. From Monday 10th February 2014 please use the following template for all bulk uploads to avoid errors.

 

New Bulk upload Template

 

A brief summary of the changes are as follows:

 

Fields added:

 

Framework and Pathway

 

Prefix

 

Asylum Seeker

 

Disability

 

Mental/Physical Impairment

 

ESOL needed

 

Employer Sector

 

Full bulk upload guidance is available on the bulk upload section of the Knowledge Base.