A Guide for Employers: Introducing Employers to Navigate

This guide introduces employers to Navigate, the platform colleges use to manage industry placements. It explains the emails you will receive, what you need to do at each stage, and how to confirm learner attendance.

We use a platform called Navigate to ensure that we meet our legal requirements and that learners have a record of their time on placement. You will receive emails from Navigate Learning <support@navigate.uk.com> with links to complete each step of the process.

What you will be asked to do

• Complete due diligence
• Sign a placement agreement
• Complete the induction checklist
• Check and sign the three reviews
• Complete feedback

Make sure you receive our emails

So that important placement emails do not go missing, please:

• Add Navigate Learning as a contact: save the email address to your contacts list.
• Move to inbox: if you find the email in your Promotions, Unfocused or Junk folder, just drag it to your Primary/Main inbox.
• Mark as important: if your email app has a VIP or Safe Sender option, add it there.

Due diligence checklist

Before the placement can even be approved, the college will need to make sure that your organisation is compliant. They will likely send out a due diligence checklist which asks for information such as health and safety and compliance dates, a risk assessment, safeguarding information, and similar. Once you have returned this, the college can move on with the placement process.

Placement agreement

The next email you receive will outline the placement details. This includes:

• Information about the learner
• Confirmation of your details
• The placement description and objectives
• The dates and times the learners will be attending

You will be asked to select whether you accept or reject the placement at the bottom of this form, and can always return to the form to view up to date details about this placement.

Induction checklist

During the first day of placement, you will be asked to complete an induction checklist. This will cover all of the content you should have informed the student of at the very beginning of the placement, including where to find the break room and toilets, their roles and responsibilities, and being introduced to fellow colleagues.

Confirming attendance

During the placement, you will receive an email every Monday morning from Navigate Learning to confirm the learner's attendance for the previous week. Please select one of the following options:

• Attended: the learner completed all scheduled hours as planned.
• Partial attendance: the learner missed some time or completed more than scheduled. Then enter the hours they did attend.
• Did not attend: use this if the learner was absent for a scheduled date without prior notice.
• Authorised absence: use this for pre-arranged absences (e.g. a college exam or medical appointment).

Initial, mid-point and final reviews

Throughout the course of the placement, you will be involved in three placement review meetings: an initial, a mid-point, and a final review. These forms will be completed by the college with your input (either virtually or face-to-face), then sent to you for your approval and sign-off.

Your feedback

It is really important that employers give feedback to learners to help their skills development. At the end of the placement, you will be emailed a link to a short form. This will allow you to give your views on the learner's performance and the support you have received from the college during the placement.

Top tip

You don't need to access emails every time. The Confirm Attendance link is permanent. Just open it once, bookmark the page, and use that link whenever you need to confirm a student's hours. This works for all the forms.

Source document attached below.