An Individual Learning Plan (ILP) acts as a customised blueprint for an apprentice’s journey, guiding their path from novice to skilled professional. Drawing on our experience of supporting hundreds of providers, this article delves into the core components of Individual Learning Plans. What exactly is an ILP? What should you put in your plan? And, crucially, how can you implement these tailored plans on a large scale?

What is an Individual Learning Plan (ILP)?

An Individual Learning Plan is a dynamic document that outlines a learner’s personal and professional goals while considering their specific needs and career aspirations. Its primary goal is to align the apprentice, employer, and training provider from the onset, creating a focused and supportive learning environment.

What do we mean by ‘individual’? How does one apprentice’s journey differ from another?

An Individual Learning Plan is tailored to reflect each learner’s unique circumstances and goals, making their learning journey distinct. Differentiating factors might include:

• The demands of their role/department.
• Their prior experience and knowledge.
• Additional learning support needs.
• Functional skills training needs.
• Capability and a need for stretch goals.
• Career aspirations.
• Areas of specialist interest.
• Optional qualifications and modules.

When you take into account the employer’s specific needs and preferences, the list expands to include:

• Industry-specific qualification requirements.
• Skills and behaviours to meet strategic priorities, such as sustainability and diversity & inclusion.
• Opportunities for career progression and exposure to new experiences.

Additionally, training providers may offer diverse approaches, such as blended delivery models, to accommodate different learner groups. In short, all learners are not the same, and all employers are not the same.

In practical terms, what should go into an Individual Learning Plan?

The ILP should clearly illustrate the impact of recognised prior learning, effectively bringing transparency to where the learner is at, and what they need to learn during their apprenticeship. It should detail how the learner will gain the competence necessary to meet the apprenticeship standard or qualification. The ILP should specify the activities involved and how they will contribute to the required Off-the-Job training.

To create an effective Individual Learning Plan, it’s crucial to choose and specify the most suitable types of activities that cater to the learner’s needs. These activities can include formal qualifications, external online training, offline learning experiences like placements and workshops, assignments, assessments, tasks related to Resource Centre materials, mentoring, shadowing, and more.

The plan should also outline any additional support required for developing maths and English functional skills. It should clearly define how any other support needs will be addressed to ensure learner success. Lastly, the plan must indicate when progress reviews will occur to track and assess the learner’s development.

Leveraging technology for tailored learning at scale

If tailored programmes get the best results, why are so many providers simply not taking this approach? For many without the supporting technology, it’s deemed too cumbersome, and requires extensive manual work to create and manage multiple programmes. All too often, a suitable level of tailoring doesn’t happen, ultimately disadvantaging learners.

Aptem transforms how ILPs are managed, by enabling training providers to create fully customised learning paths.

Learner journeys can be personalised by programme or funding stream, and can also be specific to an employer. The curriculum content can be customised down to individual learner level, and Aptem users can adapt what the journey looks like.

Aptem’s Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) calculator enables providers to evidence adjustments to training price and programme duration in recognition of prior learning. This tool provides clear evidence for adjustments and automatically reflects them in the learner’s ILR TNP1 record.

Reviews in Aptem are flexible and powerful, capable of driving progress and managing business processes. With Aptem, employers and providers can create and customise reviews for different stages of the learner journey, such as onboarding, initial reviews, progress reviews, ongoing reviews, and gateways, as well as for internal processes like compliance and eligibility checks. This flexibility is immensely helpful for providers in delivering quality apprenticeship programmes and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Sub-programmes. Aptem has simplified curriculum delivery management by creating sub-programmes, allowing users to create learning plans for all learners, subsets, and even individual learners. This facilitates personalisation at scale.

From Functional Skills and Additional Learning Support, to stretch activities and optional qualifications – all learning plan components are within one single, fluid programme, catering for every learner’s need. This eliminates the need to have multiple versions of an individual programme for the same apprenticeship.

Being able to weave employer-specific training into learning journeys can make a huge impact on employer perception and engagement. This helps providers to differentiate themselves, building long-term relationships that position them as trusted advisors and immerse them in the organisation’s workforce planning strategies.

The benefits of a well-structured ILP

An effective ILP offers several advantages, not just for the apprentice, but for employers and training providers as well:

• Enhanced motivation and engagement: By making learning relevant and aligned with personal goals, apprentices are more likely to stay engaged.
• Accountability and responsibility: Apprentices are made aware of their learning path, which fosters a sense of responsibility for their progress.
• Improved outcomes: Clear, measurable goals, coupled with regular progress reviews, ensure that learners are continually moving forward.
• Stronger employer engagement: When employers are actively involved in the ILP process, they are more likely to see the value in the training being provided.

Use case: Aptem’s flexible platform enabled Aston University’s apprenticeship team to quickly build customised learner journeys.

During their Aptem implementation process, Aston University created learner journey templates on which the academics had been consulted and had subsequently approved. They were then able to build 15 programmes, many with multiple versions and iterations, including different start dates and sequences. Aptem was on hand to support with the workload, while ensuring they had the know-how to be self-sufficient.

Use case: Aptem’s sub-programme functionality enabled a leading ITP to deliver employer-specific programmes.

As a provider that prides themselves on tailored programmes, it was important that our customer could meet employer demands to weave their own modules and supporting content into the learning plans for specific cohorts of learners. The ITP had become well-versed in the strategic workforce development goals of the employer and was delighted to be able to create truly tailored apprenticeship programmes that prepared learners for a career within that organisation and sector by incorporating additional modules and learning interventions. 

Learn more about creating Individual Learning Plans in Aptem

The Individual Learning Plan is more than just an administrative requirement; it’s a powerful tool for personal and professional growth in apprenticeships. By investing time and resources into crafting truly individualised learning plans, employers, educators, and apprentices can ensure a more successful and fulfilling apprenticeship experience.

If you are not yet an Aptem customer, talk to us today about our end-to-end apprenticeship management platform.