This new feature streamlines the management of and maintenance of marking aid, saving admins even more time. This more intuitive interface will accelerate configuration and provide a more simplified and controlled experience for marking workflows.

Every year we keep ourselves abreast of any upcoming changes to make sure we can react accordingly and ensure our platform continues to deliver against relevant rules and requirements.

To support a better learner experience, we’re exploring a dedicated mobile app that delivers a simpler, more intuitive interface. This will make it easier for apprentices to access essential features on their phone and meet the expectations of today’s mobile-first users.

Aptem’s AI-driven marking aid, developed in partnership with Graide, is the first of its kind to be specifically designed for apprenticeship programmes. This innovative solution streamlines the learner submission process and helps you meet your KPIs around learner response times. By cutting tutor marking time by up to 50%, our tool frees up tutors to provide more personalised support to their learners.

The enhanced reviews suite of AI-powered features is designed to reduce the administrative burden of reviews, from planning and preparation to reporting,
so that tutors can focus on productive conversations and one-to-one support for learner success.

The first feature to be launched automatically documents the key
discussion points and themes from each review. As the conversation progresses, crucial feedback and action points will be documented, helping to improve engagement, boost accuracy and shorten feedback loops.

To streamline learning processes, Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) will be integrated with APIs. This will reduce manual data entry duplication of efforts for learners and tutors and increase data availability for reporting.

The Aptem support assistant provides instant answers by accessing relevant resources on the Help Centre. It will also provide links to additional resources and automatically raise a ticket on the customer’s behalf if it is unable to answer the query or if more information is required.

We have developed this functionality that enables you to update compliance document templates across multiple programmes, with version control, to limit administrative effort.

To support better-informed reviews, this feature will provide a summary of key points, including achievements, outstanding actions and previous review summarise to ensure that both the tutor and the learner can effectively prepare for a structured review.

This feature adds more value to reviews by generating specific actions and goals for learners that are measurable and time limited. These goals can be tracked through the system to allow tutors to monitor progress and support where required. 

The review summarisation eliminates the trade-off between valuable conversations and accurate record-keeping, by automatically generating the key discussion points and themes from each review. As the conversation progresses, crucial feedback and action points will be documented, helping to improve engagement, boost accuracy and shorten feedback loops.

Achieve significant time savings without compromising feedback quality. By reducing the time taken to provide repetitive feedback, it allows for more personalised guidance that improves learner outcomes.

This AI-powered feature will expand the summarisation tool to also automatically generate and populate trackable goals and actions for learners based on the discussion during a progress review.

To support better-informed reviews, this feature will provide a summary of key points, including achievements, outstanding actions and previous review summaries to ensure that both the tutor and the learner can effectively prepare for a structured review.

New streamed responses from the virtual assistant mean that learners can read answers as they are generated and stop them when they’ve got what they need. This delivers a more responsive experience and gives learners greater control.

To support initial assessment and track progress from day one, tutors can now create checkpoints for learners during onboarding.

Providers would be able to better customise programmes by selecting learning plan components from a library of modules. This approach aims to create a personalised learning experience, maintain learner engagement, and incorporate prior learning from the start.

The first phase of development focused on efficiently housing information about the submission within Aptem, enabling learners and tutors to easily access it via the Learning Plan. A streamlined process that encourages clarity of expectations and standardised assessment criteria for consistency, fairness and efficiency.

Learn more: https://www.aptem.co.uk/aptem-news/aptem-and-graide-launch-first-ai-driven-integrated-marking-aid-for-apprenticeships/

This new feature allows organisations to pinpoint and address any quality issues relating to marking and also to implement improvements in a syllabus or learning materials where learner performance is not as expected across a cohort.

The clone feature will allow admins to clone existing exercise for reuse across different programmes or leaning plan components, without impacting the original exercise. This saves time and maintains consistency across similar exercises and programmes. The AI learning from the original exercise is carried over, providing faster and more accurate feedback for cloned exercises.

Expanding on the initial iteration of Aptem’s marking aid, this feature introduces intelligent KSB criteria mapping to assist tutors during the marking process. The tool learns how you mark, every time you mark. With this human-in-the-loop approach, it helps to drive accuracy and efficiency, freeing up tutors’ time and allowing them to focus on personalised guidance that supports learner progress.

Enhanced marking efficiency with AI-powered suggestions that are programmed to align with apprenticeship standards’ knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSB) criteria.
The tool learns how tutors mark, every time they mark. With this human-in-the-loop approach, it helps to drive accuracy and efficiency, freeing up tutors’ time and allowing them to focus on personalised guidance that supports learner progress.
Tutors retain full control to enrich feedback while significantly reducing marking time.

Modular learning plans will provide a foundation for flexible, responsive learner journeys. This new addition will empower both providers and learners with scalable, engaging and personalised learning pathways.

For more intuitive and efficient OTJT logging, the new activity log makes it easier for learners to record all of their learning hours in a way that meets compliance requirements. This supports clearer progress tracking and reporting.

Select customers will receive early access to the new activity log early in 2026.

This new automation will help employers and providers achieve timely document signing and improved compliance by sending reminders to any outstanding signatories.

This enhanced functionality will also offer improved oversight and reporting for providers. We’re actively engaging with customers through design review sessions, and there will be further opportunities to get involved and provide your valuable feedback as development progresses.

Adding to the utility and relevance of the virtual assistant, new personalisation options include style, tone and supplementary knowledge. This allows organisations to tailor the style and tone of the virtual assistant based on their teaching practices and brand values. Supplementary knowledge such as employer practices and proprietary learning materials can be added where relevant.

You can now easily drill down into detailed learner information by clicking on any metric on the right-hand side of every tab in the Power BI Caseload dashboard, eliminating the need for manual data interrogation. This allows you to access the information you need faster and more intuitively. Additionally, cancelled learners have been added to the dashboard, giving you a complete and comprehensive view of all learner data.

Key enhancements overview:

1. 8-month minimum duration management:

   • Introduces validation for a minimum apprenticeship duration of 8 months (242 days) starting 1 August 2025.
   • Impact areas include the apply programme screen, programme builder, and automation trackers.
   • Pre-August programmes remain unaffected.

2. OTJT management upgrades:

   • Removes 6-hour-per-week rule and introduces published minimum hours by standard and Recognised Prior Learning (RPL).
   • Adds an RPL field across screens, batch uploads, and APIs.
   • Automated validation ensures planned OTJT hours meet calculated minimums.

3. Enhanced English & Maths functional skills evidence:

   • Adds distinct fields for planned EM hours and supports separate logging for EM and OTJT hours.
   • Included in updated training plan V2 to simplify audit readiness.

Help Centre article: Preparing Aptem for the 2025/2026 Apprenticeship funding rules

Quality teams will have the ability to review marking and tutoring across a cohort to assess for consistency with the goal delivering continuous improvement of quality standards. This new feature allows organisations to pinpoint and address any quality issues relating to marking and also to implement improvements in a syllabus or learning materials where learner performance is not as expected across a cohort.

The review module will include the ability to upload a copy of the transcript from the progress review for complete documentation of the meeting, and for quick reference in case of any future queries.

This development will allow organisations to personalise the style and tone of the virtual assistant based on their teaching practices and brand values. The update will also allow for the addition of supplementary knowledge such as employer practices and proprietary learning materials.

Aptem has integrated its virtual assistant with the Checkpoint functionality. As a result, after completing a Checkpoint, the virtual assistant will be available to the learner, providing them with the opportunity to delve deeper into the topic. This timely intervention allows learners to enhance their understanding by engaging in targeted conversations right at the moment they are assessing their knowledge.

We have integrated our virtual assistant for learners with the progress monitoring tool, Checkpoint, to offer timely AI-driven interactions that engage, support and stretch learners.

After completing a checkpoint, the virtual assistant will be available to the learner, providing them with the opportunity to delve deeper into the topic. This timely intervention allows learners to enhance their understanding by engaging in targeted conversations right at the moment they are assessing their knowledge.