October 2026 release notes

Available with Aptem Enhance.

Released 1 October 2026.

The people in your organisation responsible for handling concerns can now see, act on and keep a record of potential concerns that the virtual assistant flags in learner conversations, all from a new concern management area.

Get notified straight away

When the virtual assistant flags a potential concern, administrators with the concern management permission receive an in-app notification. If they aren't logged in, they also receive an email with a link to the flagged item. Notifications contain no learner personal details. To receive the emails, administrators need All emails switched on.

Review, decide and export

The concern management area lists every flagged message with a reference number in the format CM##### and the context around it. Record a decision of Action required or No action required for each item, and export records to CSV. Flagged items are deleted automatically after 90 days, so review and export anything you need to keep before then.

Keep a full audit trail

A history log, with Held by Aptem and Deleted views, records every decision, who made it, and each automatic deletion. The audit trail remains after the flagged content itself has been deleted, and the log stores no learner personal data. You need the data export permission to export it.

A clearer experience for learners

When a learner's message triggers moderation, it no longer disappears from the chat. Learners see "Your message has been received." in its place, and the virtual assistant's supportive follow-up appears as normal. (Released 30 September 2026.)

To get started, assign the concern management permission to the staff responsible for handling concerns in your organisation.

Available with Aptem Enhance on the Enterprise package.

Coming in October 2026.

Tutors and administrators with the Supervisor or Checkpoint Tutor role can now create a manual checkpoint for several learners at once, from the Checkpoint reporting area. Previously, you had to open each learner's details and repeat the same setup for each one.

A wizard takes you through four steps:

1. Choose a programme. Select a delivery or onboarding programme. Only programmes whose standard has Checkpoint enabled are listed. For an onboarding programme, also choose the standard the checkpoint assesses against.
2. Set up the checkpoint. Name it, choose the KSBs and set question targets for each KSB.
3. Choose learners. Search by learner or employer name, and filter by Group and Programme status to find the cohort you need, then select anything from one learner to the whole cohort. Learners on a break or who have completed their programme are left out automatically.
4. Review and confirm. Check the checkpoint details and selected learners. Nothing is created until you confirm.

Available with Aptem Enhance.

Released 22 September 2026.

Tutors can now see a learner's checkpoint results in the learning progress section of a review, without leaving the review to look them up. The checkpoint widget summarises the learner's completed checkpoints and is hidden if they have no checkpoint data.

The widget is also included in the review PDF generated when the review is completed and signed, so the signed record shows the learner's checkpoint results. Select See all Checkpoint results to open the learner's full checkpoint page in a new tab while keeping the review open.

Available with Aptem Essentials and above.

Activity log migration complete

Released 23 September 2026.

The move of evidence and off-the-job training hours into the activity log is complete, and learner dashboard totals for submitted, completed and forecast hours are accurate and up to date as activities are added, changed or deleted.

Whenever evidence is saved, the matching activity log entry is created at the same time, so the two always stay in step.

Attach a file as evidence

Coming in October 2026.

Learners can now attach a single file of up to 10MB to an activity log entry, giving tutors clearer evidence to review alongside each record. Administrators control whether file uploads are available in the activity log configuration. Video files are not supported.

Uploaded files are scanned for malware

Coming in October 2026.

Every file uploaded to the activity log is scanned for malware automatically. Only files confirmed as clean can be downloaded. A file that is still being scanned, or that fails the scan, can't be downloaded until it is cleared or removed.

See which entries include a file

Coming in October 2026.

The activity log OData feed and CSV export now include an Includes File column, showing whether an entry has a clean, scanned file attached. The CSV export also has a new Activity Source column showing where each entry came from, such as the activity log, SCORM, a placement, evidence or a Teams meeting. If you use these exports in your own reports, you may want to add the new columns.

Available with Aptem Essentials and above.

Learning delivery monitoring (LDM) and delivery access method (DAM) reference data has been updated in line with the 2026/27 ILR specification:

• LDM code 397 is now valid until 28 February 2028. (Released 18 September 2026.)
• New LDM code 405 (higher education module or modular pathway) is available for learning deliveries starting on or after 1 August 2026. (Released 18 September 2026.)
• Validity dates are extended for 19 existing DAM codes, and new DAM codes 115 to 119 are available: flexible delivery, tutor-led distance learning, ESOL programme, engineering project, and regional work academies. (Released 18 September 2026.)
• New DAM code 120 (WMCA flexibility) is available for learning deliveries funded through West Midlands Combined Authority flexible provision, valid from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2030. (Released 18 September 2026.)
• DAM code 112 (further education cold spots) is now valid until 31 July 2027. (Released 23 September 2026.)
• New DAM code 121 (getting job ready with AI, DWP pilot) is available for learners on this DWP pilot programme, valid from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2028. (Released 5 October 2026.)

Existing learning delivery records are unaffected.

Available with Aptem Essentials and above.

Coming in October 2026.

In the quality dashboard, you can now see learner aims that are excluded from QAR in the Learner aims table on the QAR Headline page. Set the Included in QAR? filter to No to see them. Each excluded aim is listed under the hybrid end year it would have counted in, and the exclusion columns show why it was excluded. The Excluded From batch column is now called Excluded aim from batch.

The help text on the QAR Headline and QAR Functional Skills pages has been updated to match. QAR, retention and pass rate figures are unchanged, and so is the default view of the page.

Pass Functional Skills results credited for subjects not yet started (Released 9 October 2026.)

Available as part of the relevant integration add-on.

If a learner completed a Pass Functional Skills assessment before starting that subject in Aptem, the result didn't come through and they couldn't move on in the Onboarding Wizard. Starting either English or maths in Aptem now sets the learner up for both subjects and credits any results they've already completed in Pass. Results Pass sends for a subject the learner hasn't started yet are now recorded too.

Archived learners now appear in dashboards for admins with the Supervisor permission (Coming in October 2026.)

Administrators with the Supervisor permission can now see archived learners in the caseload, compliance, Employ, funding and quality dashboards, as they can elsewhere in Aptem. This also fixes archived learners not appearing in the QAR Headline report. Administrators without the Supervisor permission still don't see archived learners, and their figures, including QAR, exclude them, so two administrators may see different figures for the same group. Archiving doesn't always remove a learner's ILR from the batch. Where it's still in the batch, the learner's aims now count toward QAR. Each dashboard also now applies an administrator's group access consistently on every page.

Learners can now enter an activity duration up to the daily hours limit your organisation has set. Previously, the duration field stopped at 23 hours even where a higher limit was configured. (Released 30 September 2026.)

Administrators can now enable activity log for any programme in Settings, including programmes that previously appeared greyed out and couldn't be selected. (Released 28 September 2026.)

Marking aid evidence now opens correctly for assessors from anywhere in Aptem, such as the Requires marking card on the performance dashboard or a Message Centre notification. After marking, the component no longer stays showing as Requires marking. (Released 28 September 2026.)

Will be available with Aptem Enhance on the Enterprise package.

Tutors will be able to generate a briefing from the review screen, so they start each review already up to speed. The briefing will summarise the learner's recent activity log entries and learning plan progress, and administrators will be able to switch it on or off in Tenant settings. We'll add further data sources to Briefing over time.

A new "Hours log" compliance document will be available to generate directly from activity log data, giving providers a signed, audit-ready record of verified hours.

We're building a self-service data import tool for ILR data, designed to reduce the manual back and forth involved in fixing data issues during import. A first customer trial of this tool is expected soon.