Aptem Enhance is a suite of AI-powered features built into Aptem Apprentice, designed to save tutors time on administration, improve the consistency and quality of feedback, and give learners more responsive support between reviews.
What is Aptem Enhance?
What does Aptem Enhance include?
Aptem Enhance is a set of AI-powered features within Aptem Apprentice. The current suite covers four areas:
- Marking aid – AI-generated marking suggestions based on tutor-defined criteria.
- Virtual assistant – a 24/7 learner support tool contextualised to each apprenticeship standard.
- Checkpoint – knowledge and scenario-based questions mapped to KSBs, generating low-stakes assessments.
- Enhanced reviews – AI-generated review summaries and automatic action creation from meeting transcripts.
Is Aptem Enhance available as part of Aptem Apprentice?
Yes. Aptem Enhance features are available within Aptem Apprentice and fully integrated into existing features and workflows. Speak to your Customer Success Manager or contact our team to understand which features are included in your package.
How does Aptem Enhance benefit training providers?
Providers that have adopted Aptem Enhance report significant reductions in administrative time, more consistent marking and record-keeping, and stronger evidence trails for Ofsted and funding bodies.
Further reading: download the brochure.
Why use Aptem Enhance rather than a general AI tool?
General AI tools such as publicly available large language models (LLMs) can seem like a quick route to saving time, but they present four significant risks for apprenticeship providers.
- No grounding in the apprenticeship standard
A general AI tool has no knowledge of the specific KSBs, grading criteria, or assessment requirements of a learner’s programme. Aptem Enhance features are built around the apprenticeship standard and each learner’s individual context, so suggestions and support are relevant to what is being taught and assessed. - Limited explainability
General generative AI models operate as black boxes: they produce outputs without clear insight into how or why they were generated. Ofsted expects providers to be able to explain how AI suggestions are made and how decisions can be reviewed. Aptem Enhance uses classification AI for marking-related features, which works from predefined criteria and provides clear, traceable decision pathways. - No audit trail
When a tutor pastes learner work into a general AI tool and uses the output, there is no record of what was submitted, what was generated, or what the tutor changed before applying it. Aptem Enhance keeps a full history of AI-generated suggestions, tutor decisions, and applied feedback within the platform, supporting quality assurance, internal verification, and inspection readiness. - Data security risks
Using a public AI tool to process learner submissions, review notes, or employer information means sending personal data – and potentially commercially sensitive information – to a third-party model outside your control. Aptem Enhance processes data within the Aptem platform, under your existing data processing agreements, without exposing learner or employer information to external AI systems.
Further reading: download the eBook on AI tools for managing apprenticeships
Marking aid
What is marking aid and how does it work?
Marking aid generates structured feedback suggestions based on a rubric and library of tutor-created examples. Rather than starting from a blank page, tutors review AI-generated suggestions and apply, edit, or discard them. The AI assesses submissions against defined criteria, so feedback is anchored to the standard being marked. This means that tutors retain full control and that no feedback reaches a learner without human sign-off.
We already have a marking process that works. Why introduce AI into it?
The question most providers ask is not whether their current process works, but whether it scales. When caseloads grow, the time tutors spend reading submissions, formulating feedback, and writing it up grows with them. Marking aid accelerates the workflow supporting that professional judgement, so tutors are reviewing and refining rather than drafting from scratch. Across a large cohort, the time saving compounds quickly.
How does marking aid support quality assurance and internal verification?
Internal verifiers can access marked submissions and review the feedback applied, giving a clear view of marking consistency across the team. The structured approach also makes it easier to identify where individual tutors’ judgements are diverging, which supports targeted CPD. Having both a clean submission PDF and a marked version in one place simplifies sampling and reporting.
If AI is involved in marking, how do we demonstrate to Ofsted and Ofqual that standards are being maintained?
Tutors remain in control throughout. The AI generates suggestions; a tutor reviews, edits, and applies them. For Ofsted and Ofqual purposes, the distinction between AI-assisted and AI-led is significant. Aptem Enhance is designed so that professional judgement is always exercised and all decisions are fully traceable.
Learn more: watch this short video on marking aid.
Virtual assistant
What is the virtual assistant and how does it support learners?
The virtual assistant is a 24/7 AI-powered support tool contextualised to each learner’s specific programme and apprenticeship standard. It answers questions about KSBs, how knowledge areas apply to a learner’s role, and what they need to demonstrate at end-point assessment. It is not a general-purpose chatbot: it operates within the boundaries of the platform and is only activated after onboarding and compliance paperwork is complete.
Is it appropriate to use AI to support learner queries?
Tutors are the right people to handle interactions that require professional expertise, contextual knowledge of the learner, or pastoral sensitivity. A lot of what learners ask between review meetings does not fall into that category. The virtual assistant handles routine queries directly, at any time of day, freeing tutors to spend their time on the interactions that require their professional expertise.
How does the virtual assistant reduce the burden on tutors?
Providers that have adopted the virtual assistant within Aptem Enhance report a reduction in low-level queries through other channels, which compounds the time saving across a large caseload. Tutors spend less time on repetitive explanations and more time on the interactions that require their expertise.
How do we know what the AI is telling our learners? Is there an audit trail?
Yes, and this is an important safeguard. Tutors have access to a full history of each learner’s interactions. Providers can see what questions are being asked, how learners are engaging with the tool, and whether particular KSBs or topics are generating repeated queries. That audit trail gives providers confidence that the assistant is being used appropriately and supports any review of learner progress or engagement.
Is it safe to give all learners access to an AI assistant, including those who may be vulnerable?
The virtual assistant is contextualised to each learner’s specific programme and apprenticeship standard and is designed to support learning within the boundaries of the platform. Access is controlled at tenant or programme level. The assistant only becomes available after onboarding and compliance paperwork is complete, which provides a natural safeguarding step.
Further reading: download the eBook AI strategy for apprenticeship providers
Checkpoint
What is checkpoint and how does AI generate apprenticeship assessment questions?
Checkpoint generates multiple-choice questions – both theory-based and scenario-based – mapped directly to the KSBs of the relevant apprenticeship standard. The questions are generated from the framework, which means they are grounded in what the standard requires. Tutors who use checkpoint regularly report that the quality of questions is high and that the tool surfaces knowledge gaps they might not have identified through other means.
How does checkpoint benefit learners?
Checkpoint gives learners structured, low-stakes opportunities to test their understanding and identify gaps before they become critical issues. Where a learner answers incorrectly, the system provides guidance on how to improve rather than simply marking the answer wrong. Learners who understand where their gaps are can engage more purposefully with their tutor and approach gateway and end-point assessment with greater confidence.
How does checkpoint support Ofsted inspection evidence?
Checkpoint results are visible on learner profiles and in the checkpoint assessments and results report. This gives providers a consolidated, reportable view of knowledge development across their caseload. Being able to demonstrate that learners are assessed against KSBs at regular intervals, and that the data informs tutor interactions, is exactly the kind of evidence that supports a strong quality narrative.
Further reading: download the cHRysos HR Solutions case study to discover how checkpoint works in practice.
Enhanced reviews
What is the enhanced reviews feature and how does it use AI?
Enhanced reviews is a suite of features that reduces the administrative burden of review meetings from preparation through to reporting, action setting, and follow-up. The current tools are review summarisation, which generates a structured summary from a meeting transcript, and auto review actions, which automatically creates trackable learner goals from that same transcript.
How does enhanced reviews AI-generated summary compare to a tutor writing up the review themselves?
Inconsistency in review documentation is a common quality issue for providers. When summaries depend entirely on what a tutor chooses to record, the depth and structure can vary considerably between individuals. AI-generated summaries work from the full transcript, so the record reflects what was discussed rather than a selective account written under time pressure. Aptem customers report that the feature saves them between 15 and 45 minutes of admin time for every review, which adds up to a considerable timesaving.
Can AI create trackable actions from a review automatically?
Yes. The auto review actions feature extends summarisation by automatically generating trackable goals and actions for learners based on the review discussion. Rather than tutors manually identifying next steps and creating action items after the meeting, the system identifies commitments and actions from the transcript and populates them directly. Learners can see their actions, and tutors can monitor progress, all within Aptem.
We have had review quality issues flagged in inspection. How would these tools help?
Consistent, structured summaries generated from the full transcript – combined with automatically populated and trackable actions – give providers a stronger evidence base with less manual effort. For providers preparing for inspection or responding to a monitoring visit, having review records that are complete, consistent, and reportable is a meaningful advantage.
Learn more: watch the short video on enhanced reviews.
Find out more about Aptem Enhance
To see Aptem Enhance in action or discuss how it could work within your provision, get in touch with our team.
