Summary
A person can be a learner at one provider, a graduate of another, an employee of a third and a candidate at a trade test centre — and in most systems that is four unrelated records. IdentityOS gives them one identity, the SYMID, and links each organisation’s record to it.
The SYMID belongs to the person, not to a provider. That is the whole design: a provider’s record of a learner is a link to an identity, not the identity itself. It is why a learner can carry their credentials to the next provider, and why a duplicate at your provider is a resolvable problem rather than a permanent one.
Who This Guide Is For
- Administrators and registry staff
- Quality officers dealing with duplicate or disputed records
- Anyone who has ever found the same learner on the system twice
Step 1: Understand What Is Yours and What Is Not
Navigate to Identity.
Your provider sees the people linked to it. You do not browse the registry at large, and another provider does not see your learners because they share an identity with someone. The link is what is tenant-scoped; the identity is not.
Step 2: Find a Person
Use the search on the Identity page.
Matching uses several keys — identity number, date of birth, names, contact details — because any single one of them is wrong somewhere in every real dataset. The search shows why it matched, which matters when two results look similar.
Note: Identity numbers are stored encrypted and displayed as the last four digits only. Searching by a full number works; retrieving one does not.
Step 3: Resolve Duplicates
Navigate to Identity → Cases.
When the platform believes two records are the same person, it raises a resolution case rather than merging them. A merge is not reversible in any way that preserves history, so it is a decision a person makes with the evidence in front of them.
Work a case by comparing the two records’ evidence: which enrolments, which assessments, which documents. Merge when you are certain; leave the case open when you are not. An open case is not a failure — a wrong merge is.
Step 4: Verification
An identity can carry verifications: a document checked, an identity number validated against its check digit, a biometric enrolment where your provider uses one. Verifications are recorded with what was checked and when, so that a later reviewer can see the basis rather than a green tick.
Step 5: Consent and Sharing
An identity carries the person’s consents. What a provider may see about a person, and for how long, is governed by them — and the person can see and withdraw them from their own profile.
What Good Looks Like
- Duplicate cases are worked weekly and few stay open long
- Merges have evidence recorded against them
- Nobody keeps a private spreadsheet mapping “the same learner” across two records
Common Mistakes
- Merging to tidy up. Merge when the records are the same person, not when they look similar.
- Creating a second record because search did not find the first. Search by identity number, then by date of birth, then by name — in that order.
- Assuming another provider can see your learners. They cannot; only the person carries the identity between you.