Planned learning and EEP hours

This article provides guidance on how to input and update planned learning hours and Employability, Enrichment, and Pastoral (EEP) hours for post-16 students in secondary, all-through, and PRU/AP schools during the Autumn census. It details the processes for recording these hours, including bulk updates and individual adjustments, and emphasizes the importance of accurate data for funding purposes.

In the Autumn census, the DfE collects information on planned hours from Secondary, all-through and PRU/AP schools with sixth forms. You'll need to input planned learning hours (qualification hours) and planned Employability, Enrichment and Pastoral hours (EEP hours) on your school site for each post-16 student who was on roll at your school this year and last year.

• Planned learning hours records the total planned hours to be spent on post 16 qualifications this year. The value recorded is the number of hours as planned at the start of the programme.
• EEP hours record the total planned hours for this year. The value you record is the number of hours planned at the start of the programme and in most cases should not change.

There are fields for both of these for both Programmes of Study and T-levels.

For more information on what these fields are and what the DfE requires you submit in the autumn census, take a look at their guidance here.

Updating the recorded hours

Planned learning hours using Programmes

To add in any missing hours to programmes, go to School > School Structure > Programmes of Study. If this page is blank, see this article to set up your programmes first. Select the programme then the programme instance, then add in the Planned Learning Hours.

If the programme runs for two years, make sure you’ve set the learning hours for the first and second years. If you don't see the second year here, it means you haven't yet created the next academic year. You can either wait to fill the hours in when the year is created, or create the year by following step 1 in this article. 

Top Tip: Be sure to also include any work placements for students. Record work placements by setting up programme instances with the right qualification award reference, then adding the students to them by following the instructions in this article.

EEP hours using Courses

To add in any missing hours to courses, go to School > Programmes > Courses. Select the bottom-level courses (you may need to click +). 

To update EEP hours, tick the boxes next to the students, then click the Bulk action button to select Bulk update Student Course EEP Hours Contribution.

You can also click into a student and click Edit to update their hours individually.

Hours for T-levels

Please see our guidance here: T-levels

Updating the recorded hours manually

In bulk

The quickest way to set these hours is in bulk. You can do this by going to either:

• Students > All Students > Bulk Update > Bulk Update Learning & EEP Hours
• School > Data > Data Quality Dashboard > Students > Demographics > Bulk Update Learning & EEP hours

Values with a white background are derived from the sum of the learning hours entered for each student's programme enrolments.

Values with a yellow background have been input manually.

Top Tip: This will show any students who are 16 or older, but you only have to enter the information for students actually completing a Programme of Study.

You can check the breakdown of student’s hours to see which ones are missing from the Update Learning & EEP Hours page by clicking a student’s name.

First, select the students to update using the tick boxes on the left-hand side, then click the Bulk action button. First select Update Learning Hours.

In the slide over, add in the number of planned learning hours for all the students selected, then click Bulk Update.

You'll notice the Total Planned Hours field will also have these hours in, as this field automatically calculates the sum of the other two columns.

Next, select the students to update using the tick boxes on the left-hand side, then click the Bulk action button. Select Update EEP Hours.

In the slide over, add in the number of EEP hours for all the students selected, then click Bulk Update.

You'll notice the Total Planned Hours field will show the total of both fields, which you can use to determine if your school will receive certain types of funding.

You can also click a field to update it for an individual student.

To remove any of the hours, just update the fields leaving the numbers blank.

From the student profile

You can also update these numbers from the Enrolment section of the Student Profile. Just click the fields to update them.

Add in the hours in the slide over, then click Save Changes.

Can we input decimals?

Only whole numbers are accepted. If you want to input a decimal, you'll need to decide on whether to round up or down, or contact the DfE to discuss.