If you have had an Account Management meeting within the last few months, you will no doubt be aware of OAL’s ambitious plans to improve the OAL EPA and Qualifications Portal and the evolution of how we plan and book EPA. This has been known internally as OAL2.0.
An integral part of this development is a complete overhaul of how the OAL Portal, Creatio, works including improvements on how you register apprentices for EPA and how OAL will take over the planning and booking of EPA from the point of Gateway.
Once all of the developments are complete, we will launch the new system and process through a series of webinars, press releases, videos and guides.
What does this mean for you?
When we go live with OAL2.0 there will be three major changes:
- Registration for EPA: With the new and improved OAL Portal, you will be able to block register as many apprentices as you like from one CSV file. This will mean that you will be able to download ILR data from your MIS then upload straight into the OAL Portal, which will then automatically populate the EPA Booking forms for each apprentice on to the correct Apprenticeship Standard.
- EPA Booking: Once the new process goes live, you will no longer be required to book in the EPA with the apprentice and their employer. OAL will do it for you. You will simply need to upload the required gateway evidence on to the OAL Portal and one EPA Planning Form, then OAL will take over the planning and booking of EPA directly with the apprentice and their employer.
- The EPA Registration & Booking Form: The EPA Booking form will also look different and be much more user friendly with; Reasonable Adjustments, Gateway Submission and Results and Feedback all on the front page of the form.
What do we need you to do?
At this stage, we would ask that you do not register any apprentice on the OAL Portal, unless you expect them to achieve gateway before Christmas 2023. You will still need to register them on the ILR with OAL as the EPAO.
By doing this you will save yourself time, as you will be able to use the bulk upload process for registration and it will reduce the amount of work we need to do in transferring apprentices over to the new version of the system
Once we have the developments completed, full training and guidance will be given, so keep your eyes open for updates from the OAL Team on this exciting new development. This new process will dramatically reduce the amount of administration you need to do for registering and booking EPA, freeing up your time to do what you do best; delivering training and learning to apprentices.
If you have any further queries relating to this, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our customer support team. customerservice@oawards.co.uk