Overview

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

When a learner changes their employer, the relevant records require updating within their profile. The change of employer process automation automates the tasks associated with such a change of employer of a learner who is on an apprenticeship programme. 

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 will be applicable to any learners in who have "Active" status. Please note that this process automation is limited to delivery programmes only, as this is where funding rules require changes to be monitored. This process automation does not apply to Apprentices who are made redundant, unemployed, or are no longer eligible to continue their apprenticeship. Also note that in cases where the learner does not have an Employment Status Record, the Change in Employer process automation tracker will NOT be created.

Notes

1. This feature is only available in the console view.
2. If the 'Employer' field is disabled at the tenancy level, you will not be able to use this process automation.
3. If the learner does not have a current employment status record, or where the learner has a current employment status record, but the Employment Status ILR field is not equal to 10 (in paid employment), then the details captured in this tracker will be saved but no changes will be made to the ILR.
4. This process is not a change of working conditions process, e.g. a change of working location, not Employer. For a change of working conditions process, see: Change of working conditions.

Configuration

The change of employer 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 change of employer process automation.

1. An administrator with the 'Process Automation Trackers (Create)' role creates a tracker. The administrator must navigate to Trackers from the learner navigation menu of the learner's record. 

   

   Administrators can also navigate directly from the Learner management screen, by selecting Trackers from the View column dropdown. 

   

2. On the Trackers screen, click Create Tracker.

   

    

3. The Create Tracker screen is displayed. Select the Change of Employer tracker type. Once you select the tracker type, the Employer details relevant to the current employer are displayed.
   

4. The tracker also contains fields to fill the details of the change of employer request. 
   • • Learner: When a tracker is created from a learner record, this field is a read-only label.
     • Status: At this stage, the status is set to New.
     • Assignee: Set an assignee for the tracker
     • Date that the change(s) apply from is a mandatory field. You must pick a date that is not more than 4 weeks in the future.
     • Where available, the Current Employer details - Name, Address and EDRS number are shown in the Employer Details section.
     • In the New employer details section, select the new employer's organisation from the list of organisations. If the employer does not exist, contact your Employer account administrator. They will add the employer organisation using the Organisations tile in Aptem classic.
     • Based on the organisation record selected, the available addresses are populated in the Address drop-down list.  If the work location you require is not displayed, contact your employer account administrator.
     • Based on the Organisation and Address, the New Manager and New Mentor dropdown lists are updated.
     • Specify the New Manager and New Mentor fields. To add a manager/mentor to the organisation, contact your Employer account administrator.
       
     • In the Apprenticeship Financial Records section, the suggested residual training price (TNP3) and the suggested residual assessment price (TNP4) is prepopulated with the calculated value. This is the remaining cost for training to the employer and the cost of the EPA respectively. If you have negotiated a different price for these fields you can manually amend these fields.
       
     • In the Apprenticeship Contract Type (ACT) records section, you can see the current ACT value(s) associated with active programme aim. Select the appropriate option for the Has the Apprenticeship Contract Type (ACT) changed for the new employer question - Answer Yes or No. If you choose Yes, you must specify one of the following options:
       • Funded through a contract for services with the employer

         [ACT 1 - This is to identify whether the apprentice is funded using funds in an employer's digital account through a contract for services between the provider and the employer.]

       • Funded through a contract for services with the Skills Funding Agency
         [ACT 2 - This is to identify whether the apprentice is funded by the ESFA through a contract for services between the provider and the ESFA.]
         
   • In the Job Title section, enter the new job title. This is a mandatory field.
   • In the Working Hours section, enter the new normal working hours per week. This is a mandatory field.
     

   • Notes is an optional multi-line text field, visible to administrators with the Edit/pre/process roles.

   • Message to Tutor is an optional multi-line text field, visible to administrators with the Edit/pre/process roles.

5. 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 will not submit the details for change until it has been processed.
6. A user with the Process Automation Trackers (process) role, typically a senior administrator, can then process the request.

7. To view the tracker, the administrator must navigate to Trackers from the learner navigation menu of the learner's record. Administrators can also navigate directly from the Learner management screen, by selecting Trackers from the View column dropdown. 

8. To locate the tracker, the administrator can use the search or filter functionality.
9. To edit the tracker, the administrator must click the options icon ⋮ on the far right, under the Actions column.
   
10. 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.
    
11. The learner is notified about the approval/rejection of the request. At this stage, the status of the tracker is set to closed.
12. If the administrator rejects the request, the learner and tutor will be notified of the rejection and the reason for rejection.
13. If the administrator approves the request, the process automation makes the applicable changes.

Changes made by the process automation

Based on the details provided, the process automation makes the following changes:

• Updates the learner profile to attach them to the new organisation record. Updates the following details:
  • • Employer address
    • Line Manager
    • Mentor
    • Employer EDRS number
• Creates a new employment status record in the ILR
  • where the EDRS number has changed.
• Updates the working hours, where different.
• Updates the Job Title, where different.
• The TNP3 and TNP4 will be created based on the values you have provided in the form.
• Adds TNP values to reflect residual training (TNP3) and assessment cost (TNP4)
• In case of a change in ACT, a stop date is applied on the first ACT and a new ACT is applied, and this change will reflect across all necessary aims - the main programme aim and any aims associated with Functional Skills - English and Math.
• Re-generates compliance documents - only when there is a material change in the working hours and the new planned end is different from the learner's Programme episode 'Practical period end date'.
• Creates tracker notification for administrator

In case of material change

The process automation checks the new working hours against the threshold level that defines a material change. This threshold number must be entered while configuring this process automation.

1. If the change is minor (below the threshold), only the working hours are updated. 
2. In case of a material change where the number of hours increases, the working hours are updated, and the following notification is displayed: "The change in hours have been classified as having a "material impact" according to the parameters set by your organisation. As the Learner's working hours have increased you should ensure that you have considered adjusting the learners learning plan, whilst ensuring that you still meet the minimum duration and OTJ Hours requirements that are applicable. Please note that this will not be automatically amended as part of this process."
3. In case of a material change where the number of hours decreases, the working hours are updated and the minimum duration for the program is recalculated. Note that the planned end date in the ILR is NOT updated. Compliance documents are updated to reflect the new minimum duration.

In case of a material change where the number of hours decreases, the process automation regenerates the following compliance documents: Apprenticeship agreements, Commitment statements, Written agreement and Training plan documents.

Updates to the apprenticeship agreement

• Updates the Apprenticeship Agreement if used previously.

• Updates the document with "new expected end date" and "End date of apprenticeship" value and pushes the document out for re-signing by all required parties.

• The "Planned amount of off-the-job training (hours)" value is NOT changed.

Updates to the commitment statement

• Updates the Commitment Statement if used previously.

• Updates the document with "new expected end date" and pushes the document out for re-signing by all required parties.

• Populates "Weeks On Programme (Wks)" with "New minimum duration" value.
• The "Minimum 20% calculation (Hrs)" value is NOT changed.

Updates to the written agreement

• Updates the Written Agreement if used previously

• Updates the document with "New expected end date" value and pushes the document out for re-signing by all required parties.