How to identify learning needs of students in further education comes down to three things: use what the learner and their records tell you, measure how they process, remember and reason, and then talk with them about what both show. This guide covers how to assess learners’ needs from enrolment, for colleges, training providers and apprenticeship providers, and what inspectors and the funding rules now look for.
How to identify learning needs of students: the short answer
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| Ask | Record what the learner tells you about how they learn and any support they have had before. |
| Measure at the start | Give every learner a cognitive assessment at enrolment, to see how they process, remember and reason. |
| Add records and what staff know | Bring in prior records, any diagnosis or education, health and care plan (EHCP), and what tutors and coaches have seen. |
| Talk with the learner and agree support | Read the results together, hold a needs conversation, then agree support or record the learner’s choice to decline it. |
| Review | Check the support is working, then continue, adapt, reduce or close it. |
What a learning need looks like in further education
A learning need is anything that gets in the way of how a learner takes in, holds and uses what they are taught. Some needs are declared, some are diagnosed, and some nobody has found yet.
A cognitive profile measures how a learner processes, remembers and reasons. It can show the cognitive differences associated with dyslexia and with dyscalculia, but it never diagnoses either. A profile is a signal for professional judgement.
Why identifying needs at the start matters now
Inclusion is now graded in its own right, and identifying need comes first. Ofsted’s further education and skills inspection toolkit asks for “a culture in which early and accurate assessment of learners’ and apprentices’ needs is prioritised”. It names no method.
Inspectors start in the planning call. Ofsted’s operating guide for inspectors (September 2026) has them consider how staff identify learners who need support “even if leaders have not identified any learners/apprentices who fall into these groups”. If leaders report none, inspectors “reflect on why this may be the case”.
Cognassist’s count of 496 Ofsted reports on further education and skills providers published 12 January to 27 October 2026 shows what inspectors record:
| What inspectors record | Reports |
|---|---|
| All reports in the count | 496 |
| Needs identified early and accurately | 265 |
| Needs found late, or only when declared | 41, including 16 of the 47 graded needs attention |
Each report is read, each finding is tagged with a verbatim excerpt checked against the report, and a count is the number of reports in which inspectors wrote the finding. A report that says nothing about identification is silent, not clear of it.
What inspectors praise:
Staff identify the support needs of learners quickly and accurately so that they receive high-quality support from the start of their training.
What they record as gaps:
However, tutors rely too much on learners disclosing their barriers to learning, rather than checking with learners how they can best meet their individual needs.
Until now, they have relied solely on learners disclosing any special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
It matters to learners too. In 2024/25, apprentices with a declared learning difficulty or disability achieved at 62.3%, against 65.9% for those without (Department for Education achievement rates, March 2026). Providers report that supporting apprentices with additional needs helps achieve better retention and outcomes (Department for Education research, 2018). A barrier nobody finds never gets that support.
To see where your practice stands against the toolkit, get the Ofsted inclusion checklist.
The ways providers find need today, and what each one misses
Every method a provider already uses stays, but most of them wait for someone to already know. Identification has to be early (before the learner struggles), for everyone (one method for every learner, tutor and site), independent (not relying on someone already knowing) and accurate (measured against a standard).
| Way in | Early | For everyone | Independent | Accurate | What it gives you, and where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-declaration | Yes | Yes | No | No | Respectful, and it stays. It finds only what a learner knows and chooses to say. |
| Onboarding screening questionnaire | Yes | Yes | No | No | What the rules ask for, and it stays. Still self-report: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance says it “may highlight potential” need, and “the decision should not just be based on a screening tool”. |
| Prior records, diagnosis, education, health and care plan (EHCP) | Yes | No | No | Yes | Use them where they exist. They see only learners someone has already identified. |
| Tutor observation, then referral | No | No | Partly | No | Tutors know their learners. It is late by definition, varies by tutor, and is what inspectors record as needs found late. |
| Specialist assessment | No | No | Yes | Yes | Right for diagnosis and exam access evidence. It cannot be resourced for a whole cohort at the start. |
| Performance-based cognitive assessment | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | The learner does tasks, and the score is what they do, measured against learners like them. It adds to the methods above; it replaces none of them. |
In a report published in September 2026, inspectors credited a cognitive assessment, alongside an assessment at the start, with identifying apprentices’ support needs well:
Leaders and tutors identify apprentices’ support needs well through the use of an online cognitive assessment tool and an assessment at the start of the apprenticeship.
Measuring alongside another way in, not instead of it: that is the method this guide sets out.
Why asking the learner is not enough on its own
Asking tells you how a learner sees their own learning; measuring tells you how they actually process, remember and reason, and the two only loosely agree. Both matter, so use both.
The Department for Education (DfE) says as much in its own data guidance. The Individualised Learner Record (ILR) specification notes: “It is recognised that many learners for whom information is recorded in this field will not be able to identify themselves as having learning difficulties” (DfE, ILR specification 2026 to 2027).
Set what learners declare beside what measuring finds:
- 16.7% of apprenticeship starts in 2024/25 declared a learning difficulty or disability, and 20.3% of adult further education and skills learners (DfE and Department for Work and Pensions statistics on apprenticeships and further education and skills, published 16 July 2026).
- Approximately 1 in 3 learners Cognassist assesses in further education and apprenticeships may have a cognitive barrier that warrants support, and some may have a barrier that self-declaration misses (Cognassist assessment data).
How far the two groups overlap is not known, so neither figure can be taken from the other.
Some learners with dyslexia will never have been diagnosed: more than 80% of children with dyslexia leave school without a diagnosis (British Dyslexia Association estimate, 2025).
How to assess learners’ needs at enrolment, step by step
Measure at the start of initial assessment, alongside what the learner tells you, then talk with them.
- Ask, and record. Capture what the learner tells you about how they learn, any support they have had, and what their records show.
- Give every learner the cognitive assessment at the start. The whole cohort takes it at enrolment, not only those who declare a need. The results are written so tutors and support staff who are not specialists can read them and act on them. See how the cognitive assessment works.
- Add what staff already know. Tutors, coaches and the learning support team add what they have seen.
- Read the results together. Set the profile beside what the learner said and what the records show.
- Hold the needs conversation. A flag starts this conversation. It is never a diagnosis.
- Agree support, or record the choice to decline. The learner decides. Declining is a valid choice, and it is recorded.
- Review. Check the support is working, then continue, adapt, reduce or close it.
Initial assessment has to cover two separate things: where a learner is in English and maths, and whether they need learning support. They are different questions.
Your English and maths assessment tells you where a learner is. A cognitive assessment tells you how they learn, and what might be in the way. Initial assessment asks for both.
Never let a tool decide alone. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance on learning support for apprentices is plain: “Do not only use an automated assessment.”
For where this sits in the cycle, see the assess stage of the graduated approach.
Where identifying need sits in initial assessment
For apprenticeships, initial assessment in education must cover learning support alongside learner eligibility, recognition of prior learning, and English and maths support. The rules leave the choice of tool to the provider: “We do not specify which assessment tools must be used; this is for the provider to determine” (apprenticeship funding rules 2026 to 2027, para 27).
From a flag to a support plan: assess, plan, do, review
Identification only matters if it leads to support that is agreed, delivered and reviewed. The graduated approach in the special educational needs and disability (SEND) Code of Practice sets the cycle: assess, plan, do, review.
With Cognassist, a provider can apply that cycle consistently across every department and cohort, with automated trigger points that produce a defensible evidence chain at scale. The outcome depends on how a provider adopts and embeds it.
- Plan. Cognassist generates a personalised support plan in approximately 10 minutes, for the tutor to tailor. The plan is a starting point for a conversation with the learner, who may decline support.
- Do. Evidence is captured at the point of delivery, not built retrospectively: one trail that keeps everyday inclusive practice separate from additional, costed support.
- Review. The provider decides whether support continues, adapts, reduces or closes, and the learner has a say.
At Educationwise, learners choose when to step off support, and can step back on:
At any point throughout their journey, they have an option to opt out, we refer to it as learner support graduation. All learners have an opportunity to opt back in at any point.
For the plan itself, read how to write a learning support plan and what a learning support plan is. For the practices that follow identification across a whole provider, our guide answers what are examples of inclusive teaching strategies?, with examples in inspectors’ own words.
What providers that assess every learner say
Providers that assess every learner at enrolment describe finding barriers at the start, not months in.
Educationwise. When Ofsted inspected Educationwise in July 2026, inspectors graded inclusion strong standard, finding “comprehensive and rigorous processes to assess swiftly the support that apprentices and adult learners need”.
We give the learner all the tools and support they need from the start of the qualification, rather than two, three, six months in. We can identify those barriers straight away, and we know exactly how to support them.
The assessment also opens a conversation many learners would not start themselves:
That Cognassist assessment gives us that initial conversation starter, because some learners still don’t like to say when they’ve had extra time at school or where they’ve got learning barriers.
Read the Educationwise case study
Aspiration Training. In May 2026, inspectors judged Aspiration Training to have met the expected standard across every area, noting that leaders “promptly and accurately assess apprentices’ learning and support needs at the start of the training”.
It feels like a perfect storm of timing. We’ve got a tool that supports inclusion from enrolment onwards, and the conversations we’re having with coaches and learners about personalisation are happening every week now, not just when someone declares a need.
Read the Aspiration Training case study
Choosing an assessment to measure with
Once you decide to measure, what you measure with matters, because a score is only as good as the evidence behind it. Ask for the evidence before you ask the price, starting with what to ask of any cognitive assessment.
Checklist: identifying learners’ needs from enrolment
Work through these 10 lines with your team to see how well you identify learners’ needs from enrolment.
Checklist: identifying learners' needs from enrolment
- Every learner is assessed at the start, not only those who declare a need.
- What the learner tells you, and what their records show, are captured alongside the assessment.
- Staff add what they already know before the needs conversation.
- The assessment is never the only basis for a decision.
- Every flag leads to a needs conversation with the learner, never a diagnosis.
- The learner agrees the support, or their choice to decline is recorded.
- The support plan names each barrier and the adjustment that answers it.
- Delivery is recorded as it happens, keeping everyday practice apart from additional, costed support.
- Support is reviewed, and stepped down when it is no longer needed.
- You can say how many learners you have identified and, if the number is low, why.
