Return to learning

Overview

Process automation helps you reduce the amount of administrative effort in managing learners and helps you ensure compliance.

The return to learning process automation automates the tasks associated with the return to learning for a learner who is on an apprenticeship programme, and is currently on a break in learning.

Process automations are designed to eliminate the possibility of errors in re-keying and reduce the associated administrative effort in updating the relevant areas of the system. The automation also includes an approval process that involves an administrator reviewing the request. This ensures that you have complete control over changes made to your learners' data.

This process automation makes the following changes:

• Updates the programme status of the learner to "Active".
• Re-enables the learner to access and make progress on their learning plan, including submission of evidence
• Re-calculates planned end date on returning aims.
• Adjusts dates within learning plan to reflect restart where required
• Creates a tracker to remind administrators that an awarding organisation may need to be made aware of the change
• Updates the aims within the ILR to reflect the return to learning. Most of the ILR fields that were previously populated for an aim, they will be re-instated on the returned aim.
• Updates the associated ILR fields, where present:
  • Funding adjustment for prior learning
  • Learning Start Date
  • Learning Planned End Date

    • For a Programme Aim, the field is populated with the ‘Revised Learning Planned End Date’ from the tracker form.

    • For a Non-Programme Aim, the field is calculated by:

      • Determining the remaining learning period - the difference between the ‘Learning Planned End Date’ and the ‘Learning Actual End Date’ from the original aim.

      • Adding this remaining time to the ‘Date of Return to Learning’, as recorded in the tracker form.

    • Note: If the ‘Revised Learning Planned End Date’ is updated in the tracker, or if the ‘Learning Planned End Date’ and/or ‘Learning Actual End Date’ from the original ‘Non-Programme Aim’ differ from those of the Programme Aim, the Learning Planned End Date will vary between the two aims, which is expected.

  • Original Learning Start Date
  • Completion Status
• Updates the following ILR sections, where present:
  • Apprenticeship Financial Records
  • Apprenticeship Contract Type Records
  • Learner Support Funding
• Regenerates the Apprenticeship agreement.
• Updates End Date from Programme Details screen (episode-based End Date).
• Synchronises the updates with EPAPro if configured for the tenant.

Notes

1. If the learner's ILR is marked to be excluded, the process automation will not update the learner's ILR.
2. This process automation will be applicable to any learners who have an "On a Break" status. The process automation will not support moving a learner from "Break in learning" to "Withdrawn". 
3. This process automation is limited to delivery programmes only, as this is where funding rules require changes to be monitored.
4. The Restart ILR aim, created as a result of the processed Return to Learning tracker, is populated with same ‘Planned Hours’ value as the Original aim. The ‘Planned Hours’ will not be recalculated as per the Learning duration reduction made by the tracker.

Configuration

The return to learning process automation can be turned on or off at the tenant level. This provides administrators with complete control over this feature.

By default, this configuration is set to OFF. Administrators with the Manage Tenant Settings permission can navigate to Settings>General to configure their process automation tracker settings. For more information, see: Configure Process Automation settings for your tenant.

Workflow

The following steps describe the workflow for the return to learning process automation.

1. A tutor or an administrator uses the Aptem console to create a tracker. The tracker contains the details of the return to learning request.
   • Status: For new trackers, this will be New.
   • Assignee: Set an assignee for the tracker
   • Date of return to learning: when the learner is expected to be back. This will be used to update the ILR.
   • New suggested learning planned end date: This is calculated based on adding the duration of the break to the original planned end date. 
   • Revised learning planned end date: You can use the suggested end date, or you can modify it.

   • Does this learner require additional learning support? - Selecting "Yes" for this checkbox allows you to specify dates for Learning Support Funding (LSF). Once dates are entered in the "Date From" and "Date To" fields, the system will automatically create a new LSF record using the specified dates.
     

     This record will appear in the learner's Individual Learner Record (ILR), similar to the example shown in the screenshot, where the LSF dates are listed in the appropriate fields.
     

   • Do you want to re-plan the remaining learning plan activity dates to reflect the break in learning period? - If you want the remaining learning plan activity dates to take into account the break, select Yes. Any learning plan components that have not yet been started and have a generic date will get moved by the length of the break. Please note, this also includes Miscellaneous components, who have a status of Evidence Required by default so will not be updated by the 'Return to Learning' Tracker.

   • You can record a message to be sent to the learner and tutor. Message to learner can be provided only in case the tracker status is selected as Rejected or Process.
   • You can also append some notes relevant to the tracker. Notes can only be appended if the tracker is being edited - the option is not available from Create Tracker form.
     
2. A user with the Process Automation Trackers (pre-authorise) role, typically a line manager, can preauthorise the request. This will preauthorise the request, but it wont submit the details for change until it has been processed.
3. A user with the Process Automation Trackers (process) role, typically a senior administrator, can then process the request.
4. The administrator views the tracker. To edit the tracker, the administrator must click the options icon ⋮ on the far right, under the Actions column.
5. At this stage, the status of the tracker is new. The administrator updates the status of the tracker, and sets it to process or rejected, and clicks Save.
6. The learner is notified about the approval/rejection of the request. If the tracker is approved, the status of the tracker is set to Closed. If the tracker is rejected, the status is set to Rejected.
7. If the administrator rejects the request, the learner and tutor will be notified of the rejection.
8. If the administrator approves the request, the process automation makes the following changes:
   • Updates the programme status of the learner to "Active".
   • Re-enables the learner to access and make progress on their learning plan, including submission of evidence
   • Re-calculates planned end date on returning aims.
   • Adjusts dates within learning plan to reflect restart where required
   • Creates a tracker to remind administrators that an awarding organisation may need to be made aware of the change
   • Updates the aims within the ILR to reflect the return to learning. Most of the ILR fields that were previously populated for an aim, they will be re-instated on the returned aim.
   • Updates the associated ILR fields, where present:
     • Funding adjustment for prior learning
     • Learning Start Date
     • Learning Planned End Date

       • For a Programme Aim, the field is populated with the ‘Revised Learning Planned End Date’ from the tracker form.

       • For a Non-Programme Aim, the field is calculated by:

         • Determining the remaining learning period - the difference between the ‘Learning Planned End Date’ and the ‘Learning Actual End Date’ from the original aim.

         • Adding this remaining time to the ‘Date of Return to Learning’, as recorded in the tracker form.

       • Note: If the ‘Revised Learning Planned End Date’ is updated in the tracker, or if the ‘Learning Planned End Date’ and/or ‘Learning Actual End Date’ from the original ‘Non-Programme Aim’ differ from those of the Programme Aim, the Learning Planned End Date will vary between the two aims, which is expected.

     • Original Learning Start Date
     • Completion Status
   • Updates the following ILR sections, where present:
     • Apprenticeship Financial Records
     • Apprenticeship Contract Type Records
     • Learner Support Funding
   • Regenerates the Apprenticeship agreement.
   • Updates End Date from Programme Details screen (episode-based End Date).
   • Synchronises the updates with EPAPro if configured for the tenant.