A named coach, from day one
Every apprentice has a named TLC learning coach who plans the programme, teaches, reviews progress and stays for the whole journey. The coach is the constant, and they know the sector because they have worked in it.
How we deliver
Built around the learner. Backed by the experts.
Every TLC apprenticeship runs on one relationship: the learner and their coach. Everything else we have built exists to make that relationship stronger: the academies and partners, our own learning books and handbooks, live progress tracking, and TLC Base, the one place where learners, employers and our team meet.
The model
One relationship. Everything else in support.
An icon raises aspirations; a skilled educator helps someone achieve them. So we put the coach at the centre, bring the experts in alongside, and make the employer a partner at every stage.
Experts alongside the coach
Masterclasses, demonstrations, resources and practical challenges from our academies and partners are built into the programme. Core learning stays clear and manageable; expert content deepens it rather than overwhelming it.
The employer as a partner
Training plans co-designed with the employer, three-way reviews at least every twelve weeks, and programmes shaped around the organisation’s own values and frameworks, so what is learned applies on Monday morning.
The TLC learning approach
Expertise becomes valuable when people can put it into practice.
Our approach begins with the learner’s role and the employer’s context. We connect the knowledge a programme requires with the situations people encounter at work, then support them as they build understanding and confidence.
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A clear purpose for learning
People engage more meaningfully when they understand why a subject matters. We want learners to see the connection between their programme, their responsibilities and the opportunities ahead of them, so each stage of learning has a place in a bigger picture.
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Industry insight that broadens understanding
Specialist practitioners help people see how knowledge is used, how professional judgement develops and what excellent practice demands. A masterclass, a specialist resource or a discussion of real practice each has value when it helps a learner understand something they can use.
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Teaching that makes knowledge accessible
Strong teaching gives people a clear route through unfamiliar ideas: learning broken into manageable stages, understanding checked, new knowledge connected with what they already know, and room to ask questions without losing sight of the standard.
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Practice that develops judgement
Knowing an answer and making a sound decision at work are connected through practice. Learners consider how their learning applies to real situations, reflect on the choices they make and use feedback to improve. Progress becomes visible in what they can explain and do.
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Support that recognises the individual
Confidence, previous experience and learning needs influence how people progress. The relationship with a learning coach gives that progress direction, with clear expectations and useful feedback so people recognise what they have achieved and where to focus next.
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Technology with an educational purpose
Digital learning should make useful resources easier to reach and give people opportunities to revisit ideas. We develop our technology around those purposes, alongside the human guidance that helps learners interpret information and keep moving forward.
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Ambition with a clear route to achievement
Learners should encounter ideas that expand their horizons while building a secure understanding of the knowledge and skills their programme requires. Specialist enrichment deepens learning in a way that is relevant to the learner’s stage.
How we teach
We teach in your workplace, and we teach people how to think.
Off-the-job learning is not a classroom and not a day off site. It is structured learning inside the work your team already does.
Coaching and observation at work
A named skills coach runs every assessment, with the learner and with you.
Structured reflection
What happened, why, and what changes next shift.
Professional discussion
Defending a decision out loud, as the assessment will ask them to.
Critical thinking
The question is never only “which procedure”. It is “who is this for”.
Work-based projects
A real problem in their workplace, measured.
Live sessions with the experts
Cohort webinars where learners put a question directly to the people at the top of their field.
Micro-learning
Short and frequent, on a phone, with the coach one call away.
Closed sessions
An audience with the expert for each cohort, addressing your setting and your people.
Our experts learned by watching, doing, failing and asking why. That is the method, made teachable.
The tools we have built
Technology that strengthens the human support.
We build our own tools so the experience is ours to design, and every one of them exists to improve access, personalise support and help coaches see progress. Technology is never the purpose in itself.
TLC Base
One door for learners, employers and our team.
The portal where everyone on a programme meets: progress, resources, reviews, the people to contact and the tools behind the apprenticeship, in one place, on any device, with an area built for each sector we teach.
Our own learning books
Written for each programme, by TLC and its academies.
Structured curricula and learning books that carry the experts’ voice consistently across every cohort. In culinary, the Learning Collection runs to eight volumes and eighty-one chapters in Marco’s voice. In care, the Learn Care Excel Care Training Series gives every learner a practical course book, from consent and capacity to the standards behind good care. Learners keep their books for life.
Live progress tracking
Coach, employer and learner see the same picture.
Every stage of the journey, from pre-enrolment to progression, with progress, off-the-job hours, evidence and reviews tracked as they happen. The early signs of a learner needing more support are seen early, and the calendar is in one place.
The induction handbook
From vision to action, from day one.
A photo-led handbook every apprentice receives on their first day: the standard we set, how the apprenticeship works, safeguarding and support, their sector, their employer and their own starting point.
Digital learning, on any device
Recorded expertise learners can return to.
Masterclasses, demonstrations, micro-learning and resources delivered through our digital learning platform, so a learner on a night shift has the same access as one in the classroom.
Safeguarding and wellbeing, built in
A safeguarding lead every learner can reach.
Safeguarding, Prevent and wellbeing run through every programme, with a Designated Safeguarding Lead a call away and safer-recruitment and safeguarding systems behind our processes.
Developed with Sonoro AI and StreamLearn, the technology companies in our group, against global standards for learning technology, always with human oversight.
The honest bit
It takes some time. Here is exactly how much.
The one thing an apprenticeship asks of an employer is time. We plan it, we protect it, and we put it in your diary before it costs you anything.
- Protected learning time, in paid hours, planned around the rota, never on top of it.
- Nobody loses a colleague for a day, without it being in the rota weeks ahead.
- At least six hours a week, averaged across the whole programme, and reduced for prior experience. Not a day a week.
- Most of it in the workplace, coaching at the bench, the bedside or the desk, shadowing, and work they already do.
- One coach visit a month, scheduled with you, never dropped on you.
- Expert sessions planned a term ahead, so shifts can be covered.
- You get the calendar, every date, every learner, in one place, in TLC Base.
Expectations
Three partners. One workplace.
Every programme is a three-way agreement, and everyone knows their part before the first day.
The experts bring
- The standard: the principles of the best in the field, and what “good” means in your setting
- The learning books, masterclasses and filmed critique for every learner
- Closed sessions and bespoke content for your cohorts
- Their accreditation at the end of the programme, where the academy offers it
TLC delivers
- A named coach for every learner, and a named contact for every site
- The apprenticeship itself: enrolment, funding, compliance, assessment
- Sessions scheduled around your rota, a term ahead
- Progress reporting into the site and into head office
You provide
- Protected learning time in the rota, agreed in advance
- A workplace mentor, usually the line manager
- Real work to learn on
- Fifteen minutes at the twelve-weekly progress review
The outcome
What every apprentice leaves with.
Whatever the level and whichever the sector, four things are non-negotiable.
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A recognised qualification
The national standard, assessed independently, with a coach who has known their workplace since day one.
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A library they keep
Learning books written for the programme, in the expert’s own voice, and theirs for life.
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Time with the best
Closed sessions with leading figures in their profession, built into the programme rather than added to it.
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A next step, already planned
The next level, role or programme agreed before the certificate arrives, so development does not stop at the end.
The journey
Four stages. One standard.
Every stage has a named owner and a record the learner and the employer can both see. Nobody drifts.
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Enrolment
The right programme, agreed by all three of us.
Honest advice, a skills scan of the starting point, and a training plan signed by learner, employer and TLC before induction begins.
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Progress
Learning that happens in the work.
At least six hours a week of protected learning, evidence gathered as the work happens, and a review with the employer at least every twelve weeks.
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Achievement
Ready before gateway, not after.
Readiness agreed by all three parties, independent end-point assessment, and a clear route back if a first attempt does not go to plan.
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Progression
The next step, planned early.
The next level, role or programme is agreed before the certificate arrives, and the relationship continues through masterclasses, courses and the learning library.
See it for yourself
Thirty minutes with us is enough.
We will walk you through a programme, the learning books and TLC Base, and answer the questions you have not asked yet.