Rubitek Help Centre | Completing an RPL Assessment

Completing an RPL Assessment

Overview

Kerry

Last Update 23 days ago

This guide explains how to review and complete an applicant's Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) assessment once they have completed and submitted their assessment questionnaire.

The process takes you through all stages from reviewing the applicant's answers, through the provider assessment, including prior learning, support needs, and any adjustments to the training plan before generating the final assessment report which can be downloaded and shared with all parties.

Before you begin

Once an assessment has been sent to an applicant, its status will update in the Assessments table as the applicant progresses through the questionnaire.

To begin the RPL assessment, the assessment must have a status of Completed. This means the applicant has answered the questionnaire and submitted it back to you for review.

Go to Assessments
Select the Completed tab
Find the applicant you want to assess.
Click Open

The assessment is divided into seven stages:

Assessment summary
Preview
Assessment
Prior learning
Support needs
Learning outcomes
Adjust & report

Work through each stage in order to complete the assessment.

1. Assessment summary

The Assessment summary gives you an overview of the assessment and the applicant's submission.

It includes information such as:

applicant details
the apprenticeship standard and assessment method
when the assessment was created
when it was sent to the applicant
when the applicant first opened it
when the completed questionnaire was submitted.

You can also select View the applicant's submitted answers if you want to see the responses submitted by the applicant.

Once you have reviewed the summary, continue to Preview.

2. Preview

The Preview tab allows you to review the applicant's answers before carrying out the assessment meeting with the applicant and potentially their employer.

You can expand the Guidance section at the top of the page, which explains why the assessment is important and how the information collected should be used to establish the applicant's starting point.

Review each of the applicant's responses.

If there is anything you want to clarify, discuss or return to during the assessment meeting, click Add provider note beneath the relevant response.

Use the note to record prompts, observations or points for further discussion.

These notes will also be available during the Assessment stage and can be used to help record your evidence rationale.

Once you are ready to conduct the assessment meeting, continue to Assessment.

3. Assessment

The Assessment tab is where you conduct and record the provider assessment.

Record the assessment session
At the top of the page, enter the details of the assessment session, including:

Method
Start time
End time

Click Save session details.

Saving the session details unlocks the mapped learning outcomes so that you can begin recording your assessment decisions.

Review the numbered questions
Work through each numbered question with the applicant.

Discuss their original response and use the conversation to confirm their actual level of knowledge, skill or experience.

For each question, select the mapped learning outcomes that are evidenced by the applicant's response and your assessment discussion.

For each selected learning outcome:

choose the Confirmed starting point;
add a Development focus (optional), where appropriate; and
record the Evidence rationale.

Evidence rationale is required where a mapped learning outcome has a confirmed starting point of 1 or above.

If you added a Provider assessment note during the Preview stage, you can use the available action to copy this into the Evidence rationale field rather than entering the information again.

Review the wording and amend it where necessary so that it clearly explains the evidence supporting your decision.

Click Record decisions to save the learning outcome decisions.

Continue until all numbered questions have been reviewed.

Review Additional areas
Once you have completed the numbered questions, continue to the Additional areas section.

These are learning outcomes that require further assessment because they were not sufficiently covered through the applicant questionnaire.

Discuss each area with the applicant and record the evidence and confirmed starting point in the same way.

Complete the provider assessment
At the end of the Assessment tab, complete the Provider assessment summary.

Add an overall summary of your assessment discussion and findings.

Tick the confirmation to confirm that prior learning, qualifications, and previous experience were discussed with the applicant.

Click Save summary.

Once all required assessment information has been recorded, click Complete assessment.

4. Prior learning

Use the Prior learning tab to record any previous learning or experience that may be relevant to the apprenticeship.

This may include:

qualifications
previous training
previous apprenticeships
workplace experience
other evidence of prior learning.

Add the relevant details and any available evidence

Where appropriate, map the prior learning to the relevant learning outcomes.

You can also upload supporting evidence files where required.

Once the details are complete, click Save prior learning.

Add additional records where the applicant has more than one relevant source of prior learning.

If no relevant prior learning has been identified, the page will confirm that no prior learning has been recorded.

5. Support needs

Use the Support tab to discuss and record whether the applicant would benefit from any additional support.

This includes support with:

Maths
English
ICT
other identified needs

Assess will analyse the applicant's written questionnaire responses and may highlight indicators relating to spelling, punctuation, grammar and even written clarity.

These recommendations are intended to support your professional discussion with the applicant. They do not automatically mean that the applicant requires support.

Discuss any recommendations with the applicant and select the areas where support is required.

Record:

Support needs rationale - explain the evidence and discussion that led to the support need being identified.
Actions - record what will be done to support the applicant.

For example, this might include a diagnostic assessment, additional learning support, resources or a referral for further support.

You can also upload supporting evidence, for example the results of a support needs assessment or other relevant documentation.

Save the support needs information where required, then click Mark support needs review complete.

6. Learning outcomes

The outcomes tab provides an overview of the assessment results across all of the Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours included in the assessment.

Use this page to check that every required learning outcome has been reviewed and that a confirmed starting point has been recorded.

Review any outcomes shown as requiring a decision before proceeding.

Once everything is complete, tick the confirmation checkbox and click Approve assessment.

If Approve assessment is greyed out (you cannot tick the confirmation or select Approve assessment), one or more earlier stages of the assessment is incomplete.

Return to the previous tabs and check that you have:

completed the provider assessment
recorded all required learning outcome decisions
reviewed prior learning where applicable
completed the Support Needs review

Once all required stages are complete, return to outcomes and approve the assessment.

7. Training Plan

Once the assessment has been completed and prior learning has been identified, use the Training Plan section to review the activities affected by the RPL assessment and make any necessary adjustments.

First, select the Training Plan you want to review.
Tick Show only activities with prior learning to display the activities affected by the RPL assessment.

Review each affected activity and record the appropriate RPL decision. The Training Plan will show the original planned hours, any hours removed and the remaining hours.

Where an adjustment is required, select the relevant activity and record the appropriate decision:

Kept full
Reduced
Removed
Kept despite prior learning

Where applicable, adjust the associated training hours to reflect the decision.
Repeat this process for each activity affected by prior learning.

Review the Training Plan impact

Once all affected activities have been reviewed, the Training Plan impact section will show:

Original planned hours
Hours removed
Revised planned hours
Training-content reduction
Confirmed price reduction
Funding band price
Adjusted price

Review these figures to make sure the Training Plan accurately reflects the agreed RPL adjustments.

The portal will also show the planned start date, original planned end date and, where applicable, the confirmed revised practical period and revised planned end date. Check that the revised plan remains eligible and meets the required minimum practical period.

Confirm the agreement

Discuss the revised Training Plan with all relevant parties during the assessment process.

This should include the applicant, employer and training provider, and should cover any agreed changes to the Training Plan and associated training price

Once all parties have agreed to the adjustments, record the agreement in the Agreement section.

The portal will record when the agreement was made and who recorded it. Once finalised, the recorded decisions are retained as an auditable record.

Finalise the Training Plan

Once the adjustments and agreement have been completed, finalise the Training Plan.

After finalisation, the Training Plan decisions are locked as an auditable record. If further changes are required after finalisation, Rubitek only can unlock the adjustment for further review.

Assessment report

Once the Training Plan has been finalised, the Assessment report section becomes available.

The report provides a summary of the applicant's starting point and the impact of the RPL assessment, including:

Overall starting point
Planned hours removed
Confirmed price reduction
RPL outcome
Recognition of prior learning statement
Support needs
Assessor commentary

The Recognition of prior learning statement is generated from the confirmed Training Plan impact and cannot be edited.

Complete the assessor commentary

Review and complete the three sections of the Assessor commentary:

Summary – a short plain-English summary of where the applicant is starting from overall, including relevant prior learning and transferable strengths.
Development priorities – the most important areas for development during the apprenticeship.
Recommended training – how the Training Plan should reflect the applicant's starting point.

Once complete, click Save commentary.

Generate the assessment report

Once the commentary has been completed, generate the assessment report.

Each generated report is saved as a separate version. Generating a new version does not overwrite previous versions, allowing earlier reports to be retained as an auditable record.

The completed report can be downloaded as a Word document from the relevant report version.

Assessment workflow at a glance

Completed applicant questionnaire:

→ Review the Assessment summary
→ Preview answers and add provider notes
→ Conduct and complete the Assessment
→ Record Prior learning
→ Complete the Support needs review
→ Review Learning outcomes and approve
→ Adjust the Training Plan
→ Prepare and download the assessment report

Important
Do not approve the assessment until you are satisfied that the applicant's starting point has been properly established and all relevant prior learning, support needs and learning outcome decisions have been considered.

Once approved, the assessment record may become locked for editing, so check the information carefully before completing the approval stage.

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