Learner support software for training providers
Every apprentice supported. Every requirement evidenced.
Cognassist is the assess, plan, do, review platform for apprenticeship providers: needs identified early at onboarding, specialist-level support plans your subject tutors deliver with confidence, and audit-grade evidence captured as it happens, so the support you already give is never a cost you cannot account for.
- 400,000+
- learners assessed across UK education and training
- 26,301
- UK apprentices in the normative sample
- Hundreds
- of providers evidencing Ofsted and DfE requirements
Trusted by training providers across the country
Why now
This is no longer best practice. It is the rulebook.
Identification, support and evidence are now written into the inspection framework and the funding rules, word for word. The question an inspector or auditor asks is not whether you agree with the graduated approach. It is whether you can prove you ran it, for every apprentice, from initial assessment onwards.
Ofsted · FE and skills inspection toolkit
“Leaders and staff quickly and accurately identify learners’ and apprentices’ learning and support needs.” The expected standard in the inclusion evaluation area, graded in its own right from November 2025. Early and accurate, for every apprentice, not just those who self-declare.
DfE · Apprenticeship funding rules
“As part of the initial assessment, the provider must undertake a screening exercise for learning support.” Screening is a funding-rules requirement at the start of every single apprenticeship. You must be able to show it happened, and what followed from it.
Ofsted · FE and skills inspection toolkit
“They systematically review and adapt any support offered in a way that makes a significant difference.” For every learner you identify, inspectors expect a live plan, do and review cycle: support delivered, reviewed and adapted, not filed at onboarding and never opened again.
DfE · Apprenticeship funding rules
“…in which reasonable adjustments are provided to the apprentice and where evidence of costs can be provided.” The funding side of the same coin: claims stand only for months with delivered, costed, evidenced adjustments. The rules fund the workflow, not good intentions.
Read those four lines together and they describe one thing: a sequenced workflow with evidence at every step. That workflow has a name, assess, plan, do, review, and we built the platform for it.
Pressure
Three realities every apprenticeship provider runs on
Three pressures shape every apprenticeship provider's year, and learner support has to work within all three, not add to them. Read each as a heading, with the realities beneath it.
Margin and achievement rates
- Tight margins and achievement-rate pressure mean inclusion has to pay its way inside the delivery model you already run.
- No budget for added cost or specialist headcount, so support has to scale through the coaches you already have.
- Good records of the support you deliver are audit-grade evidence of good practice in themselves.
The gateway and end-point assessment (EPA)
- Cognitive needs identified and supported early, so apprentices reach gateway and pass end-point assessment on time.
- Late-surfacing needs threaten timely achievement, and the funding tied to it.
- The reasonable adjustments you record for everyday support also serve the apprentice at end-point assessment, accepted by most awarding organisations.
The funding audit and your learner data
- Funded learning support has to be evidenced month by month, not reconstructed before an audit.
- Records built as support happens stand up to your funding audit.
- Your Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data stays defensible and honest.
The workflow
One inclusion workflow, inside the delivery model you already run
Assess, plan, do, review is not a feature we added; it is the architecture of the platform. Cognassist runs the graduated approach across the apprentice journey, inside the coaching relationship you already have: one platform for every apprentice, no parallel system, and every step leaves evidence.
Step 01 of 04
Assess
Every apprentice completes a short cognitive assessment at enrolment, so needs surface early, not late.
- About 30 minutes, completed by the apprentice
- Measures the cognitive differences associated with specific learning differences
- Nine performance validity tests guard every result
- A signal for the coach's professional judgement, not a diagnosis
The proactive-support decision, its rationale and its timing are captured automatically to an auditable journal, the decision an auditor looks for first.
Step 02 of 04
Plan
The coach co-creates a personalised support plan with the apprentice, generated in minutes.
- Built by non-specialist coaches, with no new headcount
- Pre-written adjustments matched to the assessed need
- Ready to use in the next session
Specialist-level analysis without hiring specialists; the plan is co-created and digitally signed as contemporaneous proof the learner was involved.
Step 03 of 04
Do
Adjustments are delivered in the flow of the coaching you already run.
- The platform does the heavy lifting, so it adds minimal coach time
- Your specialist or Additional Learning Support (ALS) team is amplified, not replaced
- Reserved specialist capacity goes to the most complex needs
The Coverage Checker coaches record quality in real time, so the evidence is audit-grade the day it is written, not after a review six months later.
Step 04 of 04
Review
A light monthly action records the support: select the adjustment you supported, confirm delivery, note the impact.
- The golden thread makes each record audit-grade automatically
- Traceable back from adjustment to assessed need
- Carries the apprentice toward gateway and end-point assessment
Group delivery
Group sessions that work for the apprentices actually in the room
Apprenticeship delivery is not only one-to-one. Adaptify, co-produced with and endorsed by City & Guilds, curates one-to-many adjustments for the cognitive diversity of the exact learners in each session, so support arrives inside the session and nobody is singled out.
For your provision
An inclusive layer that reaches every apprentice in the session, not just those with a personal plan, and that you can standardise across delivery teams and evidence at scale.
For your subject tutors
The cognitive make-up of the group and the adjustments matched to it, before they deliver, so sessions work for the learners actually attending, without evenings of redesign.
For your learners
One adjustment delivered once benefits the whole group. Support is built into the session, not bolted on, and nobody is singled out to receive it.
The business case
Good records are audit-grade evidence, and your defensible funding position
Good records of the support you deliver are audit-grade evidence of good inclusive practice in themselves. The golden thread traces each adjustment back to the assessed need, so your evidence is defensible, it stands up to your funding audit, and your ILR data stays honest.
- Built as support happens, not reconstructed the week before an audit.
- That same evidence is the defensible basis if you choose to consider recovering the cost of the support you deliver. That decision, your eligibility and your ILR coding stay entirely yours.
- Cognassist supplies the evidence. It never files, guarantees or recovers a claim.
£200,000 per 500 apprentices, a year
On average, for every 500 apprentices on programme, a provider spends at least £200,000 supporting learning needs. With the right workflow that spend is evidenced and recoverable. Without it, it is simply absorbed.
The spend is not optional: good tutors support struggling apprentices whether or not a workflow exists. What is optional is whether it is evidenced.
Around three in ten assessed apprentices are flagged to consider a needs assessment: a third of your cohort, not an edge case.
Learning support funding is claimable only for months where adjustments were delivered and the cost evidenced. Every unevidenced month is spend already lost.
Evidencing costs for ALS funding
Two providers spend the same on support. Only one gets it back.
| Provider A: no embedded workflow | Provider B: Cognassist embedded | |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Inconsistent, so needs surface late, through struggle and missed gateways. | Every apprentice screened at onboarding, exactly as the funding rules require. |
| Support decision | No documented decision, no rationale, nothing an auditor can read back. | Every decision documented with its rationale the moment it is made, automatically. |
| Delivery and cost | Tutors quietly compensate with extra sessions and reworked resources, none of it recorded. | Delivery, extra hours and costs captured in the flow of work, month by month, at audit standard. |
| At year end | The money is gone, the evidence never existed, and the audit position is hope. | The MIS team exports the evidence and claims under the provider’s own policy. The spend comes back. |
See your own numbers, not ours
Bring your learner count and your current identification rate. In 30 minutes we will show you the workflow live, and what evidenced support would look like across your cohort.
Peer proof · Key Training
Inclusion that pays its way, proven with a provider like yours
Key Training assessed every learner across apprenticeships, traineeships and adult programmes, and built a network of Cognassist Champions delivering targeted support and accurate funding applications, inside its existing coaching model.
“Cognassist has been a critical part of our success. The platform helps us support our learners in a way we simply couldn't before.”
- 3,000+learners assessed
- +1Ofsted grade
- Cleanfunding audit
More proof
Training providers evidencing inclusion inside the workflow
More apprenticeship providers, in their own words and their own results.
Cognassist has been instrumental in helping us put strong policies and strategies in place. We now feel completely confident in our evidence and compliance.
We were definitely able to identify a lot more learners… We also have used some of the Cognassist assessment tools to be able to go to end-point organisations and look at reasonable adjustments, so we can use that as evidence.
We utilise the Cognassist report for applications of additional time in end-point assessment settings… we've used multiple awarding bodies… and all have accepted the requests.
The value is priceless. It's not just for me; it's for the learners and the tutors.
Independent doctoral research found that early cognitive flags predict apprenticeship withdrawal, and that the cognitive profile predicts withdrawal better than a diagnosis label. Early, accurate identification is where retention starts.
Leadership and governance
Walk into any review knowing your support position
The graded inclusion area extends the expectation to every apprentice with a need, exactly where leadership visibility is thinnest. Cognassist gives leaders the whole-provider picture, built from the evidence your teams already capture in the flow of work.
- Every decision, plan change, delivery record and review journals itself as a by-product of normal work, so nobody compiles evidence for a deadline.
- See where every apprentice sits in the assess, plan, do, review cycle in real time, with flags where progress has stalled.
- The same golden thread is evidence you can defend in your self-assessment report, your quality improvement plan, your inspection and your funding audit.
Getting started
Live inside the systems you already run, within an intake
Delivery teams are spread across employers, sites and remote sessions, staff time is precious, and the systems already exist. Deployment is designed around that reality, not against it.
Training in the flow of work
Role-based training is delivered on demand inside the platform, so subject tutors, coaches and quality leads each get a lane that fits how your delivery actually runs, with completion visible to leaders.
Whole intakes, from day one
Because the assessment runs itself, entire intakes are assessed during onboarding, and late starters assess when they join, without asking your staff for time they do not have.
Inside your existing platforms
Two-way integrations with the leading apprenticeship platforms, OneFile, Bud, Aptem and OneAdvanced's ePortfolio (formerly Smart Assessor): create the learner in your own system and results flow back to their record. A public API and bulk evidence export cover the rest of your MIS and reporting stack.
Two-way integrations with the platforms you already run
Where next
Where to go next for your provision
This page is the who and the why. Each card routes you to the how.
Deliver learner support at scale
Consistent support across every coach, inside the workflow you already run, without specialist dependence.
ExploreTurn support records into audit-grade evidence
How the records you already keep become defensible evidence, and your funding position.
ExploreSee how providers like yours use Cognassist
Read the full set of training-provider and apprenticeship customer stories.
Explore
FAQ
The questions training providers actually ask
Providers are rightly cautious, and you have heard big claims before. These are the hard questions apprenticeship leaders put to us, and the answers we give.
Our ALS team already handles this.
For the learners who reach them. A specialist team or a manual process rarely sees the whole cohort, and rarely produces a contemporaneous evidence chain for every learner it does see. Cognassist lets your specialists focus on the most complex cases while subject tutors deliver evidenced support for everyone else. It amplifies the team you have; it does not replace them.Will identifying more need just mean more cost?
Only if every identified need costs specialist time. The platform carries the heavy lifting: automated assessment, curated plans, delivery in the flow of work, and support that ends when it has worked. And with the workflow embedded, support that carries extra cost is evidenced, so it can be the basis for the additional funding your provision is already entitled to consider.Will it work with OneFile, Bud, Aptem or OneAdvanced?
Cognassist integrates two-way with the leading apprenticeship platforms: create and invite the learner from your own system, and results flow back to the learner’s record. A public API and bulk evidence export cover the rest of your MIS and reporting stack. (The OneAdvanced connector is with ePortfolio, formerly Smart Assessor.) We put our technical team in front of yours before you commit, not after.Why trust an edtech company with this?
Because the claims are checkable. The assessment was developed with an independent science advisory board, is reviewed and validated by PATOSS against JCQ scientific-validity requirements, and was normed on 26,301 UK apprentices, your sector, not someone else’s.Is Cognassist right for our training provider?
Yes. Cognassist is the learner support software built for providers delivering apprenticeships: one inclusion workflow inside the delivery model you already run, for every apprentice. It is proven with providers like Key Training, Educationwise Academy, YMCA Training and Hawk Training.How does this help apprentices reach gateway and pass end-point assessment?
You assess early, support in the flow of coaching, and evidence delivery, so needs are met before they threaten timely achievement. The same reasonable adjustments you record for everyday support also serve the apprentice at end-point assessment, accepted by most awarding organisations. Cognassist provides the evidence, the apprentice's documented normal way of working; you run your awarding organisation's access-arrangement process.How quickly can we get started?
Quickly, because Cognassist works inside the delivery model you already run rather than adding a parallel system. Apprentices can be assessed at enrolment, coaches plan support in minutes, and there is no specialist team to recruit first. Book a demo and we will map it to how your provision already works.Does it add work for our coaches and tutors?
Minimal. The platform does the heavy lifting, and the monthly action is light and guided. Your specialist or ALS team is amplified, not replaced, with no new headcount and no parallel system to run alongside your existing tools.Is the cognitive assessment a diagnosis?
No. It measures the cognitive differences associated with specific learning differences and informs a coach's professional judgement. It is not a clinical diagnosis, and it does not by itself establish disability under the Equality Act 2010.Can we recover the cost of the support we deliver?
Good records of delivered support are audit-grade evidence of good practice in themselves, and the defensible basis if you choose to consider cost recovery. That decision, your eligibility and your ILR coding are entirely yours. Cognassist provides the evidence; it never files, guarantees or recovers a claim.Will our records stand up to a funding audit?
The records are audit-grade by design. Because they are built as support happens, and the golden thread traces each adjustment back to the assessed need, your evidence is defensible and your ILR data stays honest. Cognassist does not generate an audit report or reconcile your ILR for you.We already record support in the system we run. What does Cognassist add?
Cognassist adds the inclusion evidence layer on top of the system you already run. It coaches the quality of each support record at the point of entry, with the Coverage Checker, so the evidence is defensible, not just present. And it gives leaders admin-level, organisation-wide oversight of evidence quality through Insights.Who can see the leadership dashboard?
Admins. Insights is an admin-only view for leadership oversight, not a tutor or coach-facing dashboard.
Inclusion that works inside your delivery model
One workflow for every apprentice, evidenced from enrolment to end-point assessment, with no added cost and no specialist headcount. See how it fits your provision.