Cost calculation

This page explains the operations involved in calculating the cost of a training course.

This page is accompanied by a general diagram of a fictitious formation to which the various examples provided correspond.

What is a load-bearing ELP?

The carrier ELP is a non-modifiable field in teaching hours. It is automatically defined when a teaching hour is created. Teaching hours are created from an ELP, which automatically becomes the carrier ELP.

What is an EU?

A UE (Unité d'Enseignement - Teaching Unit) is an ELP (élément pédagogique - pedagogical element) whose nature bears the UE code.
Example: UE 1 - Sciences, UE 2 - Modern language, UE 3 - Support.

What is a lower-level ELP?

This is an ELP that does not have an ELP list in its structure.
Example: Algebra, Geometry, Statistics, Advanced Statistics, Logic, Physics, Chemistry, Classical English, Professional English, German, Spanish, TOEIC, Mathematics.

What is a stage?

This is a container whose type has the code "annee".
Example: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3.

What is a milestone?

The step carrying an ELP is a container of type year whose ELP is part of the hierarchy and whose reference it is.

How is the carrier stage defined?

A carrier step is defined at ELP level. This is an optional field, as it is not essential to define one.

Starting from the same point, the way to retrieve the stage carrying the teaching hours is the same as that of its ELP carrier.

If the ELP has a value in its carrier step field, this is defined as its carrier step.
Otherwise, the algorithm goes back to all the ELP's parents, which are containers of type year (steps).
Then, if there is only one step, it is a carrier.
Otherwise, no carrier step is defined.

What is the impact of the carrier stage?

It can be used to guide the choice of certain values for calculations in control reports, as well as the display in certain reports.

The carrier step is not mandatory, as default values can be taken into account.

What's the point of a standard?

A standard is a configuration in which it is possible to define for each type of teaching (CM, TD, TP, etc.) the maximum and minimum additional enrolment thresholds.

It is not compulsory to enter thresholds for all types of teaching.

A standard can be defined at different levels:

Container (used only as part of a carrier stage)
Teaching hours

Assigning a standard is not required either, as it is possible to define default values for maximum and minimum additional enrolments in the teaching type reference table.

How do I find out which standard I'm using?

The most important standard is the one linked to teaching hours, which is the most precise.

However, this standard is only valid if it has values for the teaching nature of current teaching hours.

If not, the standard of the carrier step is retrieved (if a carrier step is identified), and we check again that it is valid before applying it.

Finally, if the standard is still not identified, then no standard is applied and the default values for maximum and minimum additional enrolments entered in the teaching type reference table are retrieved.

What is the impact of entering an estimated headcount?

It is advisable to enter estimated headcounts at least at year level, and to adjust them according to the specific features of each training program. In particular, it will often be necessary to adjust headcounts for ELPs placed on optional lists.

How is seized headcount recovered and used?

The number of employees entered is the number of employees manually filled in by the user in the "Estimated number of employees" field.

The headcount entered is retrieved by moving up the tree structure from teaching hours. As each level of the tree structure can be shared by several other entities ODF (mutualization), all the headcounts entered in the parent objects are retrieved and added together.

The algorithm then goes back up all the parent trees of the teaching hours, and stops in each tree as soon as estimated headcounts have been found. At this point, the weighting between the teaching hours from which the algorithm began and the element on which the estimated headcount was found is applied to the headcount.

Simple case

For example, in our diagram, if an estimated headcount of 60 is entered in the "Year 1" container, we will have :

Algebra: 60 x 1 (Semester list) x 1 (UE 1 list) x 1 (Compulsory subjects) = 60
Advanced statistics: 60 x 1 (Semester list) x 1 (UE 1 list) x 1/2 (Electives) = 30
English classic: 60 x 1 (Semester list) x 1/3 (UE 2 list) x 1/2 (Electives) = 10
Professional English: 60 x 1 (Semester list) x 1/3 (UE 2 list) x 1/2 (Elective subjects) = 10
German: 60 x 1 (Semester list) x 1/3 (UE 2 list) = 20
Spanish: 60 x 1 (Semester list) x 1/3 (UE 2 list) = 20
TOEIC : 60 x 1 (Semester list) x 0 (UE 3 list) = 0

However, if we specify an estimated headcount for the "English" ELP of 50, we get :

Classical English: 50 x 1/2 (Electives) = 25
Professional English: 50 x 1/2 (Elective subjects) = 25

Note that this does not affect other staffing levels. It may be necessary to redefine the staffing levels of ELPs at the same level in order to adjust them.

Pooling of an intermediate ODF element (here an ELP)

Let's take the case of mutualization: let's imagine that we only have students in the years of licenses X, Y and Z. The "English" ELP is mutualized between years 1 of these three licenses. A mutualization diagram accompanies this example.

Licence X - Year 1: Estimated 250 students. The weight is 0 because it is part of an optional UE.
Licence Y - Year 1: Estimated 600 students. The weight is 1/3 because it follows the scheme given as an example.
Licence Z - Year 1 : Estimated 120 students. The weight is 1 because it is part of a tree structure containing only "mandatory" lists.

The algorithm then sums the estimated numbers weighted by their weight recovered from each branch:

Total number of students entered for ELP "English": 250 x 0 + 600 x 1/3 + 120 x 1 = 320 students

The total number of employees entered then flows down to the ELPs below the "English" ELP by applying their respective weights:

ELP "Classic English": 320 x 1/2 = 160 students
ELP "Professional English": 320 x 1/2 = 160 students

Pooling of teaching hours

The pooling of teaching hours makes it possible to pool certain teaching hours within an ELP without pooling everything. Typically, certain hours of lectures can be shared between several training courses, yet another part of the lectures in this subject will depend on the training course, as will the tutorials and practical work.

The calculation method is identical to that used for other mutualizations, but offers the possibility of placing a precise number of employees on each parent ELP, since it is not mutualized.

How is weight calculated?

Starting with an initial weight of 1, each time a list of ELPs is traversed by the algorithm, the weight is updated in this way according to the type of ELP:

mandatory: multiplied by 1
optional: multiplied by 0
selectable: multiplied by the minimum number of ELPs to be selected and divided by the total number of ELPs in the list

Example:

Algebra: 1 (Compulsory subjects) x 1 (UE 1 list) x 1 (Semester list) = weight 1 for year 1
Advanced statistics: 1/2 (Elective subjects) x 1 (EU 1 list) x 1 (Semester list) = weight 1/2 in relation to year 1
Classical English: 1/2 (Elective subjects) x 1/3 (UE 2 list) x 1 (Semester list) = weighting 1/6 in relation to year 1 but weighting 1/2 in relation to ELP English
German: 1/3 (List UE 2) x 1 (List semester) = weight 1/3 compared to year 1
TOEIC : 0 (List UE 3) x 1 (List semester) = weight 0 compared to year 1

What's the difference between calculated and entered headcounts?

As we saw in the previous point, the numbers entered are in fact deducted from a calculation. The numbers calculated are purely deducted from the steps and do not take into account intermediate elements (except for the weight calculation).

How are staff numbers broken down?

The number of employees broken down is the number of employees present on thestage (it is recommended that this field be filled in for all year-type containers) multiplied by its weight since the teaching hours concerned.

Where do you get the maximum and minimum additional headcount?

The maximum and minimum additional numbers can be retrieved from various places:

If a standard has been identified, the maximum and minimum supplementary headcount corresponding to the nature of the current teaching hours are read into the standard.
If there is no standard, the default values for the type of teaching entered in the "Type of teaching" reference table are taken into account.

However, as these fields are not mandatory, it is possible that no value is found. If the additional maximum and/or minimum number of employees is missing, the calculation cannot continue.

How are groups calculated?

As a prerequisite, it is necessary to have first retrieved the total headcount entered, the total headcount calculated, the maximum headcount and the minimum additional headcount.

If the total number of employees entered is greater than zero, then the algorithm will use this number to calculate the groups.
Otherwise, the number of employees used to calculate the groups will be the number calculated.

The number of groups calculated is as follows:

0 if the base workforce is zero
1 if the base workforce is less than the maximum workforce
In all other cases, the basic workforce is divided by the maximum workforce.
If the remainder of the division is greater than or equal to the minimum additional number, the number is incremented by 1.

Here are a few examples, based on 110 students:

Max. number = 20, min. additional number = 10: 110/20 = 5 groups, 110 - (5 x 20) = 10 => 10 is equal to the minimum additional number, the algorithm increments the result by 1, making 6 groups.
Max. number = 20, min. additional number = 12: 110/20 = 5 groups, 110 - (5 x 20) = 10 => 10 is less than the minimum additional number, the algorithm retains the initial result of 5 groups.
Max. number = 40, min. additional number = 20: 110/20 = 2 groups, 110 - (2 x 40) = 30 => 30 is greater than the minimum additional number, the algorithm increments the result by 1, making 3 groups.
Max. number of employees = 120, min. additional = 50: 110 is less than the maximum number of employees, only one group is open.

How is the total TD equivalent (eqTD) calculated?

The TD equivalent is based on three parameters:

Coefficient eqTD
By default, the value entered in the "Type of teaching" reference table is taken into account, but it can be overwritten for teaching hours with a more precise value.
Number of groups
By default, the value of previously calculated groups is taken into account, unless a user has manually entered a value in the "Groups to open" field in teaching hours, in which case it takes precedence.
Teaching hours
This is the "Teaching hours" field.

The calculation is as follows: number of groups x hourly volume x eqTD coefficient

How is the breakdown of TD equivalents (eqTD) calculated?

The breakdown of TD equivalents is calculated from the breakdown of headcount by taking the ratio between headcount per stage and total headcount. This ratio is then applied to the total TD equivalent for each stage to obtain the breakdown.

Algorithms

Hours per student

For each component
For all the component's courses
Retrieve all the TUs
For each TU
Browse the structure (descending path) until you reach the lowest level ELPs
Calculate the weight
If the lowest level ELP is reached and the weight is greater than 0
Aggregate the hourly volumes by teaching type
Add this hourly volume to theTU:
- Multiplied by the weight for the average
- Without any additional operation for the total.

Groups

For each component
For each course in the component
For each stage in the course
Browse the structure (downwards) until you reach the lowest level ELPs
For each "teaching hours"
Check that thecarrier ELP still exists
Retrieve the carrier stage
Retrieve the standard
Retrieve maximum and minimum supplementary enrolments
If maximum and minimum supp. not empty
Retrieve enrolment data
Calculate total enrolment
Break down enrolment by stage
Update groups and enrolments calculated in teaching hours
Check enrolment breakdown: sum of calculated enrolments must be equal to total calculated enrolment
Calculate groups
Calculate total TD equivalent
Breakdown of EqTDs

Check the breakdown of TD equivalents: sum of breakdown eqTD must equal total eqTD