Overview

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

The RPL calculator process automation automates the tasks associated with adjusting funding values for a learner on an apprenticeship programme, who has recognised prior 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 change:

• Updates the associated ILR field: TNP1 (Total training price)

This process automation can be applied to learners with the following programme status: Onboarding, Ready to enrol, and Active. This process automation is applicable to delivery programmes. It is not applicable to Employ programmes.

Note: This article is applicable to Employers using Aptem classic. If you are using the console, see: RPL calculator.

Note: We now have a New RPL tracker process automation which is different to this. Please check the other one, and use whichever one is appropriate for your case.

Configuration

The RPL calculator 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.

An additional configuration step for this process automation is done at programme level.

Click on the Programmes tile. Navigate to your programme, and click Edit.

The Programme Builder screen is displayed. Select the Tracker token.

If RPL calculator has been enabled for your tenant, you can see a Recognition of Prior learning tab on this screen.

Click the Recognition of Prior learning tab.

Specify the Maximum eligibility score (%). Candidates whose score is equal to or higher than this score may not be eligible for funding.

The calculation for the maximum eligibility score is based on the number of questions set and a scale of the number of questions that are answered correctly. An example would be a skills scan with 40 questions using a 1-5 scale. Therefore, if a Learner scored 80% that would imply an average score of 4 out of 5. A different example would be having 20 questions in a scale of 1-3 or 20 questions and a scale of 1-5's. But the calculation will always be based on the average score. It is also worth noting that the minimum score will be 20% as the lowest possible score is 1 out of 5.

The discount range(s) could therefore possibly be:

• 0% to 40% with no reductions
• 41% to 50% with a small reduction
• 51% to 60% with a medium reduction
• 61% to 70% with a large reduction

The Maximum Eligibility Score would be 71% as anything above this would be too large a reduction and would knock the programme below the minimum OTJ and/or duration.

Specify the Training Price Discount (percentage) and the Reduction in Duration (days). You can specify different levels along with the corresponding training price discount and reduction in duration.

In this example, three different ranges of scores have been defined along with the applicable discount/reduction. You can have as many ranges as you want. But you must ensure that there are no gaps in the ranges you define. Across all your ranges, all percentage values from 1 to the maximum eligible score should be covered.

To delete a row, click the red icon to the right of the row. To add a row, click Add more.

Click Confirm to finish.

Workflow

The following steps describe the workflow for the RPL calculator process automation.

1. A tutor or an administrator creates a tracker from the trackers page or from the users profile. The tracker contains the details of RPL calculator request.
   • • If the organisation uses Skills Radar assessments, the tutor/admin can choose an assessment to use for the RPL calculator.
       
     • If the tutor/admin chose a Skills Radar Assessment, they can choose between the following price reduction options:
       • • No discount
         • Custom discount
         • Skills Radar discount
           
     • Note that the calculated adjustments are updated dynamically updated as per the selection.
     • Similarly, the tutor/admin can choose between the following programme duration reduction options: 

• • • • No discount
      • Custom discount
      • Skills Radar discount

1. • • Note that the current Skills Radar in Aptem starts at 1. The minimum % returned will depend on the number of points on your scale. For example, for a 5-point scale, the minimum score returned will be 20%. You will need to reflect this in your RPL policy and discount ranges as appropriate.
     • Note that the tracker will not automatically apply a change to the programme duration. The reduction will need to be applied to the learner record manually.
     • The tutor/admin clicks Save to create the tracker.
2. A user with the Process Automation Trackers (pre-authorise) role, typically a line manager, can pre-authorise the request. While this will pre-authorise the request, it won't 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. The administrator can use the Tracker tile and search for the RPL calculator type. To edit the tracker, the administrator must click Edit.
   
5. At this stage, the status of the tracker is new or pre-authorised. 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. At this stage, the status of the tracker is set to closed.
7. If the administrator rejects the request, the learner and tutor will be notified of the rejection and the reason for rejection.
8. If the administrator approves the request, the process automation makes the following change:

• • Updates the associated ILR field: TNP1 (Total training price)