Inclusion is now a graded, whole-provider evaluation area in Ofsted’s inspection framework for further education and skills. What that means in practice is familiar to every provider: know your learners early, reduce the barriers in front of them, adapt without lowering expectations, and be able to show it worked.
Aptem is built so that inclusive practice and the record of it are the same activity. This article looks at the features that do that work, and at what each one changes for the learner.
Aptem Assess: knowing the learner before delivery starts
Aptem Assess delivers an initial cognitive assessment as part of onboarding, before the programme begins. It identifies how a learner takes in, processes and retains information, and surfaces learning support needs that an intake form or an interview will not.
The value is timing. Needs are known at the point the learning plan is being built, rather than discovered six weeks in when a learner has already fallen behind and formed a view of themselves as someone who struggles. Results feed the learner’s support profile, so the tutor picking up the caseload starts with the right information instead of building it from impressions.
Aptem Assess runs as a step within onboarding, and can also be used again later in the programme, because a learner’s needs are not fixed at the point they enrol. It works inside Aptem Apprentice, and as a standalone product for providers who want the assessment on its own.
Functional Skills integrations: meeting learners where they are
Learners without level 2 English or maths are one of the groups providers are asked about most. Aptem integrates with Pass Functional Skills, CENTURY, bksb and NCFE (formerly Skills Forward), so initial assessment and diagnostic results flow straight into the learner’s learning plan rather than sitting in a separate system.
For the learner, that means the diagnostic they sat in week one actually shapes what they are asked to do next. Even if the learner is not required to continue with formal Functional Skills study, gaps can addressed as part of the programme, in components mapped to their own plan, instead of Functional Skills running as a parallel course that feels bolted on. For the tutor, the current position on English and maths is visible in the same place as everything else.
Sub-programmes: a plan shaped around the individual
The learning plan is the spine of a learner’s programme, mapped to the knowledge, skills and behaviours of their standard. Sub-programmes let an individual learner’s plan branch within the main programme, so a different route through the same destination is a configuration, not an exception.
This is where reasonable adjustments stop being paperwork. If a learner needs additional practice before an assessed component, more time on a module, or a different sequence because of a specialist recommendation, that lives in their plan where the tutor, the learner and the employer all see it. Nothing depends on one person remembering what was agreed.
Skills radar: giving learners a view of their own progress
Skills radar captures the learner’s own assessment of their confidence and competence against each of their KSBs, alongside scores from the tutor and, where the provider enables it, the employer. Assessments are repeated through the programme and date-stamped, and the history view shows movement over time.
Two things make this matter for inclusion. The first is voice: the learner scores themselves, so their own view of where they are is part of the record and part of the conversation, rather than something a tutor infers. The second is format. A visual picture of progress lands differently from a paragraph of written feedback, and for learners who find dense text hard going, seeing the shape of their own development is often the first time progress has felt real to them.
It also answers the harder question about support: when can it be reduced? Because the scores are longitudinal, the point at which a learner no longer needs additional help is visible, so independence is built deliberately rather than withdrawn abruptly.
Enhanced reviews: making the review a conversation, not a task
Enhanced reviews is a feature within the AI suite available from Aptem Enhance which summarises a review meeting into a structured summary the learner can see. Auto review actions turn that summary into trackable actions on the learner’s record with a single step, which the tutor checks and edits before saving.
The obvious benefit is the record. The more important one is what happens in the room. Note-taking during a review is a genuine barrier for some learners: a learner with dyslexia, or anyone who processes written information slowly, spends the meeting worrying about capturing it accurately instead of engaging with it. Take that pressure away and the review becomes what it is supposed to be, a supportive conversation about progress, with a clear summary waiting afterwards that the learner did not have to write. Anxiety about the paperwork stops competing with the discussion.
Actions carry forward, so an adjustment agreed in one review is live at the next rather than closing with the meeting. Reviews themselves are configurable in Programme Builder and can require signatures from the learner, employer and provider, producing a dated record of what was agreed.
Aptem virtual assistant: support at the moment the learner needs it
The Aptem virtual assistant is available to learners in the platform around the clock and is contextualised to their own programme and standard. It explains KSBs, answers questions about what is expected, and fills the gap between tutor contacts.
For inclusion, the quiet benefit is who uses it. Plenty of learners will not raise a hand, will not email a tutor at 21:00, and will not admit in a review that they did not follow something three weeks ago. Those learners can ask the virtual assistant, repeatedly, without the social cost. It also removes the wait: a question asked on a Tuesday evening gets an answer on a Tuesday evening, which for a learner balancing shift work and study is the difference between continuing and stalling.
The virtual assistant is one part of a wider pattern: Aptem Enhance brings AI into the moments that most affect an inclusive experience, from on-demand support through to the marking and reviews.
The virtual assistant also has read-aloud functionality, which lets the tool narrate its replies using text to speech. Where reading is itself the barrier, whether because of a specific learning difficulty or because the learner is studying in a language that is not their first, being able to listen rather than read can change whether the support is usable at all.
Marking aid: consistent feedback whatever the caseload
Marking aid produces feedback suggestions against a rubric on written submissions. Tutors review, edit and apply them, and the learner receives both a clean copy of their submission and a marked version for their portfolio.
Feedback quality is one of the first things to slip when a caseload is under pressure, and it slips unevenly. The learner who needs the most detailed feedback is often the one who gets a shorter comment at the end of a long marking session. Giving tutors a considered starting point, which they then shape with their own knowledge of the learner, raises the floor.
Checkpoint: low-stakes knowledge checks that teach
Checkpoint generates multiple-choice questions mapped to the KSBs of a learner’s standard, including scenario-based questions. Tutors can trigger them automatically or build one for an individual learner around specific KSBs, and results appear on the learner’s profile.
Because incorrect answers come back with guidance on how to improve, the check is a teaching moment rather than a verdict. It is also private and repeatable, which matters for learners who find assessment exposing. Tutors get an impartial view of the learner’s understanding that does not depend on how confident a learner sounds in a review. Checkpoint also integrates with the virtual assistant, so a learner can ask for help on a question they got wrong or stretch themselves on areas that are a strength.
Activity log: noticing when a learner goes quiet
The activity log gives learners one place to record their off-the-job training and tutors one place to review and verify it. Alongside the verification work, it does something valuable for inclusion: it makes disengagement visible early.
The tutor landing page shows a count of learners with no accepted activity in the last 28 days, opening onto an inactive learners page. That page lists each learner with the date of their last activity, their telephone number and email address, and their line manager’s contact details, sorted so the learners who have been quiet longest come first. A tutor can act on it in minutes.
This is what proactive support looks like operationally. A learner whose circumstances have changed, whose health has dipped or whose employer has stopped protecting their study time rarely announces it. What happens is that activity stops. Surfacing that as a working list, with the contact details already there, turns a pattern nobody noticed into a quick phone call. Where a tutor rejects an activity, the feedback is shown to the learner and stays visible when they resubmit, so they can see what to address rather than guessing.
Seeing the pattern across the provider
Individual support only becomes a strategy when leaders can see it in aggregate. The caseload dashboard shows activity levels, progress and at-risk indicators across teams. The quality dashboard covers achievement and retention with breakdowns by gender, age, ethnicity and disability, so a gap between groups shows up as a number rather than a hunch. Group structures segment all of this by region, department or team, and user generic reporting and OData feeds take the data wherever a provider’s own reporting lives.
That is what turns an inclusion policy into something a leadership team can act on, and something a governor can hold them to account for.
Frequently asked questions
Which Aptem features support inclusion?
Aptem Assess for initial cognitive assessment, integrations with Pass Functional Skills, CENTURY, bksb and NCFE (formerly Skills Forward) for English and maths, sub-programmes for individualised learning plans, skills radar for shared progress assessment, enhanced reviews for supportive review meetings, Aptem virtual assistant for on-demand learner support, marking aid for consistent feedback, checkpoint for low-stakes knowledge checks, the activity log for spotting disengagement, and the caseload and quality dashboards for provider-level oversight.
How does Aptem identify a learner’s support needs?
Aptem Assess delivers an initial cognitive assessment during onboarding, identifying how a learner processes information and what support they need. Functional Skills diagnostics from integrated providers flow into the learning plan, and the Learning Records Service integration retrieves the learner’s prior attainment. The learner’s own skills radar self-assessment adds their view of their starting point.
How does Aptem support learners with dyslexia or other reading difficulties?
Several ways. Aptem Assess identifies processing and reading-related needs at the outset. Skills radar presents progress visually rather than as dense written feedback. Enhanced reviews produce the meeting summary, so the learner does not have to take notes to keep an accurate record. Aptem virtual assistant read-aloud functionality lets learners listen to responses instead of reading them.
How does Aptem help to spot learners who are disengaging?
The activity log flags learners with no accepted activity in the last 28 days and provides an inactive learners view with the contact details needed to follow up, ordered so the longest-quiet learners come first. The caseload dashboard shows activity levels and at-risk indicators across a caseload, and RAG status on reviews flags learners who are behind.
Can employers take part in assessing a learner’s progress?
Yes. Where a provider enables it, employers can view and score skills radar competencies and add notes and evidence, and can be required to complete their scoring before a review is finished. Employers also have their own dashboard view of their apprentices’ progress.
How can a provider tell whether its inclusion support is working?
The quality dashboard reports achievement and retention with breakdowns by gender, age, ethnicity and disability, so a gap between groups is visible as a figure rather than an impression. Skills radar histories show whether individual learners are progressing from their starting points, and the caseload dashboard shows engagement across teams. Group structures let leaders view any of this by region, department or team.
See how Aptem could support inclusive practice across your organisation, book a demo today.
