This was a truly ground-breaking project that aimed to verify each UK learning provider against a trusted source, apply a unique provider number (UK Provider Reference Number or UKPRN), and - via cutting-edge web services technology - enable the sharing of information about each provider through the system. Its business aim was to cut down bureaucracy, improve accuracy of information and create a uniform source of all verified UK providers.

The UK Register of Learning Providers:

Is now the central repository of learning provider information for use across the education sector and was the first of the MIAP (the managing information across partners strategy) projects to be delivered on time and on budget

Has over 25,000 registered learning providers, each one having been independently verified by Hotcourses with a range of sources to ensure that they are unique and legal entities

Is now integrated with most of the major education bodies in the UK and therefore facilitates the sharing of information across government bodies via the common data field of the UKPRN

Reduces bureaucracy by collecting data, such as name and address, only once and using it many times across various systems

Has provided an accurate and reliable source of provider information that now feeds into a wide range of education services and systems in the UK

Saved the Learning and Skills Council approximately £4 million by identifying duplicate providers

Hotcourses Solutions met several challenges as part of this project in 2004:

It was responsible for the architecture, design, IT development, implementation and support of the solution

The UK Register of Learning Providers was designed to be the hub of MIAP; as a result, the UKPRN, was developed by Hotcourses to become the common provider reference number that all government-based educational systems were to use

It was necessary to have integration with the various sector agencies which signed up to the project. In order to provide the most flexible solution, the UK Register of Learning Providers was designed to utilise web services. This allowed the implementation of services that the various agencies could then integrate into their own systems as time and resources allowed

As part of the integration work, it was also necessary to integrate the UK Register of Learning Providers with external data sources in order to provide the supporting information required to verify and validate provider details. Hotcourses therefore developed and implemented verification arrangements with a wide range of organisations such as the Post Office, Companies House and the Charities Commission

The UK Register of Learning Providers system was developed so that this data could be updated as and when necessary without impacting the operational service

Hotcourses Solutions implemented a dedicated help desk that is manned through out core working hours; its purpose is to communicate with providers and help them through any problems or queries they may have about the system or data