Providing the Right Support at the Right Time
Every apprentice is different.
People bring different experiences, strengths, learning preferences and support needs to their apprenticeship. Our responsibility is to recognise those differences while maintaining high expectations and helping every learner make meaningful progress.
Feedback from learners has reinforced the importance of identifying support early and reviewing it throughout the apprenticeship.
You said:
Learners told us that support should reflect individual needs and that reasonable adjustments should be discussed and organised as early as possible.
They also highlighted the importance of early Functional Skills support and the need to recognise wellbeing as part of the wider apprenticeship experience.
We listened:
We have strengthened our approach to additional learning support using Assess, Plan, Do, Review, or APDR.
This means support should not simply be identified when an apprentice starts their programme and then remain unchanged.
Instead, it should be reviewed regularly.
We consider:
- What support is needed?
- What will we put in place?
- Is the support working?
- What needs to change?
We have also simplified our support review processes and are continuing to develop our trainers and assessors’ understanding of neurodiversity, inclusive teaching and adapting learning.
Identifying reasonable adjustments earlier
Where a learner may require reasonable adjustments, we want these conversations to happen as early as possible.
This is particularly important where adjustments may also be required for professional examinations or End-Point Assessment.
Starting those conversations early gives learners, employers and our team more time to understand requirements and put appropriate support in place.
Strengthening Functional Skills support
Learners have also told us that English and maths support should begin early rather than becoming a barrier towards the end of an apprenticeship.
We are therefore strengthening how we identify, monitor and support Functional Skills throughout the learner journey.
We use PASS to support English and maths development and are gathering feedback about learners’ experience of the platform, including how regularly they use it, how easy it is to navigate and how confident they feel in their English and maths.
We have also appointed a Functional Skills Champion to help us develop our approach further.
Supporting wellbeing
Apprenticeship progress can also be affected by circumstances beyond the classroom.
Our learner reviews provide opportunities to discuss wider barriers that may be affecting participation, engagement or progress, including wellbeing.
We are continuing to develop the way we gather feedback in this area so that emerging concerns can be recognised and appropriate support considered earlier.
Earlier support when difficulties emerge
The same principle applies when an apprentice begins to experience difficulties with attendance, engagement, programme progress, examinations, Functional Skills, protected learning time or workplace support.
We want concerns to be identified and discussed before they become more serious.
Our approach is straightforward:
Early support rather than late intervention.
By identifying needs sooner and reviewing support more consistently, we want every learner to have the best possible opportunity to progress and succeed.