July 2026 Release notes

Available as part of the relevant integration add-on.

Providers can now use Pass as a functional skills initial assessment provider, alongside Century, BKSB and Skills Forward.

Setting it up

Admins with the tenant settings role can turn on the integration from Settings > Integrations, then enter their Pass API key. The key is checked with Pass before it's accepted, encrypted at rest, and stays masked whenever the settings page is revisited. Once the integration is enabled, an admin can share a webhook URL and key with Pass so that assessment completions are reported back to Aptem automatically, including for learners who completed their assessment with Pass before being enrolled in Aptem.

Configuring it

Admins can select Pass as the functional skills provider for English and maths, both in the onboarding wizard and when configuring learning plan components, in programme builder and directly on a learner's learning plan. Digital skills isn't supported by Pass yet, so it isn't offered as an option when Pass is selected.

The learner experience

During onboarding, or from the relevant learning plan component, learners get a direct link through to Pass, using their Aptem-registered email address. If a learner clicks the link for a specific subject, only that subject is sent for enrolment, so learners with more than one Pass assessment configured can complete them one at a time. The onboarding wizard's initial assessment step can't be marked complete until every configured Pass assessment is finished, with a clear message if a learner tries to move on early.

Results, automatically

Once a learner completes an assessment, their result and a PDF report are retrieved and attached to the relevant component automatically, no manual step needed, using the same evidence workflow as Century, BKSB and Skills Forward. Admins can also see completion results in the learner's profile and in the functional skills step of a review.

Handling the edge cases

If a learner's email is already registered with a different organisation in Pass, they'll see a clear message asking them to contact their administrator, rather than an error. And if the Pass service is ever temporarily unavailable, learners and admins will see a friendly message instead of a system error, everywhere Pass normally appears.

Available with Aptem Enhance.

AVA gets a coordinated set of upgrades this release, giving learners more ways to get help directly from the assistant and reducing the number of routine questions tutors need to field themselves.

Easier to notice

Learners will see a more prominent, pulsating AVA icon in the top navigation bar from the moment they log in, alongside a prompt reading "Not sure what to focus on? Ask me". The prompt stays visible until AVA is opened, then reappears the next time the learner logs in, on both desktop and mobile.

Questions about the learning plan

Learners can now ask AVA direct questions about their own progress, such as "What should I do next?", "How is my progress?" and "What's on my learning plan?". AVA answers using the learner's actual data rather than a generic response, and can point them towards relevant components, deadlines and resources.

Questions about reviews

AVA can now answer questions about upcoming and completed reviews too, from any screen in Aptem rather than only the reviews page. Where AVA can't answer with confidence, for example on details it doesn't hold, it lets the learner know their tutor will be able to help instead.

Questions about review actions

Learners can also ask AVA about the actions set in their reviews, such as what's outstanding or due soonest, and AVA will offer relevant follow-up questions based on the learner's own review data.

Reads its answers aloud

AVA can now read its responses aloud, with controls to pause, resume and skip through the audio, using the voice already built into the learner's browser. This is particularly useful for learners who find reading on screen difficult, or for whom English isn't a first language.

More resilient if AVA is temporarily unavailable

If the virtual assistant service is ever briefly unavailable, learners and administrators will no longer see error messages. AVA's entry points are simply hidden until the service is back, so the rest of the platform carries on working normally.

Available with Aptem Essentials and above.

Providers can now select "training, apprenticeship units" as a dedicated delivery type when creating or configuring a programme. This new government-defined programme type, in place since 28 April 2026, is funded through a two-milestone model based on delivery hours rather than monthly off-the-job payments, and is structurally different to a standard apprenticeship, so it needed its own delivery type rather than being bolted onto an existing one.

Choosing this delivery type sets the correct ILR defaults automatically (including ILR programme type 34) and shows only the fields relevant to unit-based delivery when a provider staff member applies the programme to a learner: start and end date, planned learning hours, working hours, employment start date and sub-programmes. Learners must be 19 or older on the start date, and the programme cannot run for more than 16 weeks; both are checked automatically, whether a learner is applied individually or as part of a CSV import of multiple learners.

Providers can also record a funding rate on the programme and an agreed price on the learner's record, both editable, and can apply unit programmes to multiple learners in one operation using CSV import, including planned learning hours and an agreed price for each learner.

Delivery hours can now be planned at the component level too, in both programme builder and directly in a learner's learning plan, giving the same level of detail that off-the-job hours planning offers on standard apprenticeships. And when it's time to get the paperwork in place, providers can generate a dedicated Apprenticeship Unit Training Plan, a compliance document built specifically for unit programmes, covering unit and employment details, key milestones, and commitments from provider, employer and learner.

Available with Aptem Essentials and above.

Admins can now assign an off-the-job activity category to a learning plan component from a clear, pre-defined, alphabetical list, in both programme builder and the learning plan, with the same categories and behaviour available in Classic and Console. Categories include options such as lectures or tutorials, mentoring, practical training or activity, shadowing, industry visits, and research and independent study.

The category field is optional and starts unselected, so nothing changes for existing components until an admin chooses to assign one. Once assigned, categories now show in the training plan's method column in place of the generic component type, are included in all three learning plan synchronisation options so category changes can be rolled out across affected learners, and are available through the OData feed for reporting. This gives providers a more consistent way to record and report on off-the-job hours, in place of unset or ad-hoc categorisation.

Available with Aptem Essentials and above.

A new version of the training plan, version 3, is now available, reflecting the 2026/27 apprenticeship funding rules. It replaces the Department for Education logo with the Department for Work and Pensions logo, following the transfer of departmental responsibility for apprenticeships, and updates terminology throughout so that "end-point assessment organisation" now reads "assessment organisation", "end-point assessment" reads "apprenticeship assessment", and "gateway to assessment" reads "gateway to completion".

The provider, employer and learner commitment statements have also been rewritten to match the 2026/27 rules, including the revised co-investment structure, the removal of the Recruit an Apprentice obligation, a new employer PAYE confirmation, corrected timing for selecting an assessment organisation, and the Apprenticeship Service Support helpline as a mandatory disclosure. Off-the-job hours references now point to the hours published for each standard rather than a flat weekly figure.

Version 3 applies to new apprenticeships starting from 1 August 2026. Providers using earlier training plan versions are not affected until they choose to adopt version 3, and providers moving to version 3 should double-check that dynamic fields, such as their Designated Safeguarding Lead contact and provider website, are correctly configured before issuing documents.

Available with Aptem Pro and above.

Admins reporting on learning plan evidence through OData can now filter by an updated date field on the LearningPlanEvidences feed, so they only need to request records that have changed since their last sync, rather than the whole dataset each time. The field reflects any meaningful change to an evidence record, not just hours-related updates, including status changes, portfolio flag updates and soft deletes.

Admins can also drill down into Missing Aims, Weightings and Errors metrics on the funding dashboard to see exactly which learners are contributing to a result. The drilldown respects existing filters and permissions, supports exporting the data, and can be cleared to return to the default view, making it quicker to investigate and correct funding and data quality issues.

Support agents now see customer email replies routed to the correct training provider's support address automatically, with automatic replies such as out of office suppressed, reducing the number of misdirected support tickets and the time spent triaging them.

Admins reviewing overdue learners on large tenants will no longer see a timeout error on the components overdue drill-down, and results are now sorted by earliest overdue component due date by default, so the learners needing attention soonest appear first without manual sorting.

Long, unbroken words such as slash-joined terms, and wide tables, no longer get cut off in SCORM asset evidence report PDFs. Wide tables are now automatically resized to fit the page, and long words wrap within their column instead of running off the edge, so evidence stays complete and readable.

The agreed price field now shows correctly after importing learners onto a unit programme by CSV, instead of showing "N/A".

The type field for qualification components in the learning plan now correctly reads "maths" rather than "math".

Delivery hours collection for apprenticeship unit programmes will move to a dedicated activity log configuration, replacing the current programme requirements toggle.

We're extending AVA's ability to answer contextual questions into further areas of the platform.