Every new learner, the same pile of documents
Before each apprentice starts, your team works out where they are. They take an English and maths assessment in one tool. They fill in a skills scan against the standard, often a spreadsheet or a Word document with a column of ratings. The coach talks to them and their line manager about previous qualifications and experience. Certificates arrive as phone photos.
Then someone turns all that into a training plan. The planned duration, the hours, the units that can be reduced because of prior learning. It is typed by hand, and the reasoning behind it lives in the coach's notes, if anywhere. When your quality team asks later why the programme was shortened, or not, the coach who did the assessment has often moved on.
Why the starting point is hard to record well
- Assessment results, the skills scan and certificates are in different formats and places.
- The skills scan is often a spreadsheet template that has been edited so many times no two copies match.
- Prior learning decisions are made in conversation and summarised in a sentence, if at all.
- The training plan is filled in separately, so its numbers do not always match the assessment.
- Each coach has their own habits, so the learner files look different across your provision.
Where a weak starting point hurts
The starting point shapes the whole programme. If it is thin, the plan may cover things the learner already knows, which wastes their time and the employer's goodwill, or skip things they do not know, which shows up late at gateway.
It is also one of the areas most often looked at when learner files are reviewed, because it explains the length and content of the programme. A consistent, evidenced record takes pressure off your coaches and your quality team. What your provision does about prior learning is set by your own policy and the rules you work under; we make the record of it complete and consistent.
Our structured starting-point record
- The skills scan is rebuilt as an online form per standard, with the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out as your team defines them, completed by the learner and reviewed with the line manager.
- English and maths assessment results are pulled from your assessment tool where it offers an export or API, or uploaded by the coach.
- Previous qualifications are recorded with a certificate upload, and checked by a person.
- The coach records each prior learning decision against the relevant part of the standard, with the evidence it rests on.
- A draft of the training plan's key figures is produced from those decisions for the coach to adjust and confirm, so plan and assessment agree.
- Everything is stored against the learner in your e-portfolio or document store, in the same layout for every learner.
| Input | Source | Where it ends up |
|---|---|---|
| Skills scan | Online form, learner and line manager | Starting-point record |
| English and maths assessment | Your assessment tool | Starting-point record and MIS |
| Previous qualifications | Learner upload, checked by staff | Learner file |
| Prior learning decisions | Coach, with evidence | Starting-point record |
| Training plan figures | Drafted from the above, confirmed by the coach | Training plan |
A new start with a clear record
The learner completes the skills scan on their phone before meeting the coach. Their assessment results are already attached. The coach and line manager go through the scan together, the coach records two areas of prior learning with the certificate that supports each, and the draft plan updates as they go.
When the training plan goes for signing, it matches the assessment exactly. Months later, anyone can open the record and see why the programme was planned the way it was.
Sound familiar?
- Skills scans are spreadsheets that differ between coaches.
- Prior learning decisions are hard to trace back to evidence.
- Training plan figures are typed in separately from the assessment.
- Certificates arrive as photos in email and are hard to find later.
- Learner files look different depending on who started them.