Milestones is a feature that enables RTOs to digitally track a learner’s progression against specified activity criteria mapped against Units of Competency.
Milestones serve as checkpoints in a Work-Based Learning placement, allowing administrators to define the units and criteria a learner must complete to progress.
Admins and trainers can define specific criteria that a learner must demonstrate in the workplace. As learners progress normally, evidence of completion is recorded digitally against each activity and then attached to a Milestone.
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Features and Benefits include:
- Digital Tracking: Record and monitor learner progression against unit criteria directly within aXcelerate, eliminating paper-based processes.
- Configurable Checkpoints: Define the units, activities and criteria a learner must complete at each stage of their placement.
- Supervisor Sign-off: Supervisors can formally complete a Milestone with a written summary and digital signature once all criteria are met.
- Two-Step Approval: Optionally require a Placement Trainer to co-sign before a Milestone is marked as complete.
- 3rd Party reporting: Create reports that include the supervisor's summary, sign-off, and all criteria.
Note: Access to Work-Based Learning configuration requires the relevant Work-Based Learning permissions to be enabled against a user’s role settings.
Milestones Configuration
Milestones are configured at the Qualification level within Work-Based Learning. To access the configuration, navigate to Work-Based Learning → Configuration and select the relevant Qualification.
Getting started
The steps required to configure Milestones will vary depending on whether you are new to Work-Based Learning or have an existing setup. If you have previously used Work-Based Learning, skip ahead to Configuring Milestones.
If you are setting up Work-Based Learning for the first time, the following process must be completed before creating your Milestones.
Ensure your Host Employer Organisations have been created. Further information can be found in our dedicated Work-based Learning Host Employers guide.
Create the activities that your learners will complete within the workplace, then map your activities to the relevant units. Further information on creating and mapping activities can be found in our dedicated Work-based Learning Activities guide.
Within the relevant unit, add the activities the learner will need to complete as criteria, and set the required value, hours or reps.
Map Activities to Units:
There are two approaches to mapping activities to units.
The first is to navigate to Configuration > Qual > Unit > Select unit and map activities from the Units screen.
The second is to navigate to Configuration > Activities > Select activity > Add mapping and map directly from the Activity.
Once the above actions have been completed, you can create your Milestone by adding the relevant units using the steps below.
Configuring Milestones:
- Open the Work-Based Learning menu item and select Configuration
- Select the relevant qualification, then select the required unit
- Build your Milestones within the Qualification
- Attach the relevant units to each Milestone
- Configure the criteria for activities within each Milestone
Add a unit:
Users can add one or multiple Units to a Milestone.
Add a unit to a Milestone:
- Open the Work-Based Learning menu item and select Configuration
- Select the relevant qualification, then create or select the required Milestone
- Use the ‘Search units to add to this Milestone’ to locate and then select the relevant unit
Units automatically carry through any criteria and activity mappings you've already set up. To add or update these, navigate to the Unit’s configuration page.
Add a prerequisite:
You can select another Milestone to act as a prerequisite, which will lock the Milestone until all prerequisites are completed and approved. An example of this would be the requirement to achieve a Basic First Aid Milestone signed off prior to being able to begin an Advanced First Aid Milestone.
- Open the Work-Based Learning menu item and select Configuration
- Navigate to the relevant Qualification, then select the Milestone
- Within the Milestone, select the settings cog in the top right corner
- Search for and select the relevant Milestone
Adding criteria to activities and units
After adding a unit to a Milestone, users can configure the criteria directly from the attached unit within the Milestone or by navigating to the specific Unit to manage its mapped activities, criteria and required unit hours.
From the unit, users can:
- Search for activities (mapped activities will appear first in results)
- Add activities to the unit
- Add criteria to the unit
Note: If an unmapped activity is selected, it will be mapped to the unit as criteria automatically.
Update unit criteria:
- Locate and select the qualification within the Work-Based Learning Configuration page
- Hover over the unit and select the pencil icon to the right
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Update the relevant criteria, then select close to save your changes
Unit Hours
Users can also configure Unit Hours against a unit. Unit Hours are progressed when a learner logs time against any activity mapped to that unit, even if that activity does not have its own criteria attached.
This enables users to set an overall time requirement for a unit, while also specifying minimum time requirements for individual activities within it.
Example: The unit ‘Use plumbing hand and power tools’ requires 40 hours in total. Within the unit, two activities are attached: Use hand tools for work and Use power tools for work, each requiring a minimum of 10 hours. The learner can progress the unit by logging 40 hours against any mapped activity, but must also log at least 10 hours each against Use hand tools for work and Use power tools for work specifically.
Tip: Unit hours can be set or updated within the unit criteria section by updating the ‘Required hours for completion’ field.
Qualification with Milestones full setup
A complete Milestone configuration is achieved by repeating the steps above, adding units and configuring their activities, criteria and unit hours, for each Milestone within the Qualification. Once all Milestones are configured, the Qualification is ready to be used when creating placements.
Creating Placements with Milestones
When a placement is created with a Qualification that has Milestones configured, a snapshot of the Qualification and Milestone setup is taken at the time of creation
This means any changes made to the Qualification or Milestone configuration after the placement has been created will not apply to that placement; they will only take effect for new placements going forward.
Further information on creating placements can be found in our dedicated Work-Based Learning placements guide.
Note: The ability to update existing placements to use updated Qualification or Milestone configuration is planned for a future release following the initial launch.
Reviewing Milestones
While a learner is in progress, any user with access to the placement, including Admins, Trainers, and Supervisors, can view the learner’s Milestone progress.
The Milestones view presents two key screens:
The Milestones overview displays an overview of the learner’s Milestones and their current status at a glance. Trainers and Supervisors can view what the learner has and has not yet completed, but cannot take action until all criteria are met.
Once the learner has completed all criteria, the Milestone status will change to Ready for review, and Supervisors will be able to mark the Milestone as complete by adding a summary and signature.
Milestone Progression
Progression within Milestones is driven by the learner logging activity entries against their placement. When a learner creates a log entry, the system evaluates the entry against the criteria and unit hours configured for the relevant Milestone.
How progression is calculated:
- Criteria progression: Progression is made when learners submit log entries with activities, and when a supervisor approves those entries.
- Unit Hours progression: Unit Hours advance each time a learner logs time for any activity mapped to the unit, regardless of whether that activity has its own criteria attached.
- Activity-specific criteria: Activity criteria progression occurs when an activity's hours are tracked separately, through hour requirements and must meet the minimum threshold before the activity is considered complete.
Note: Submitted evidence appears as progression to the learner, but is only counted as progression once reviewed by a supervisor. If a supervisor returns a log entry for revision, the learner's displayed progression will reset until they resubmit.
Milestone Statuses
When a Learner is enrolled into a Placement with Milestones, several statuses may appear against an individual Milestone, which will update as the learner progresses. The possible statuses are outlined below:
Not started
The Milestone is available to the Learner, but no log submissions have been made.
In progress
The Milestone is available to the Learner, and log entries have been added, but there is still more to do.
Ready for review
All criteria met and approved, so the Milestone can now be reviewed by a Supervisor.
Complete
After a Milestone has been reviewed and approved.
Prerequisites not met
When a Milestone is not available to a Learner because the prerequisite Milestones have not yet been completed.
A Milestone is ready for review once all criteria within it have been met. At that point, the Supervisor will be able to complete the Milestone as outlined in the Completing a Milestone section below.
Note: Milestone criteria are applied at the time of completion. Changes to a Milestone's configuration will not affect existing log entries or reverse a completed Milestone.
Completing a Milestone
Once all criteria within a Milestone have been completed by the learner, and submitted log entries have been approved, Supervisors are able to complete the Milestone. During this process, the Supervisor is required to:
In the below example, Managers within Construction & Projects would only be able to view workers linked to that organisation and its child organisations, whereas Managers linked to Advanced Xtraction Company would be able to view workers within the Construction & Projects, Advanced Xtraction Company and all other organisations within the org tree.
- Include a summary of what the learner demonstrated and the evidence they submitted during their Milestone. This summary is included in Milestone and Placement reports.
- Capture a digital signature to confirm completion.
Two-step approval process
Milestones can optionally be configured to require two-step approval. When enabled, the Placement Trainer is also required to provide their signature before the Milestone is marked as complete. This provides an additional layer of verification beyond the Supervisor’s sign-off.
Note: Two-step approval is an optional configuration and must be enabled within the Milestone settings prior to a placement being created.
Milestone Placement Report
All users with access to the placements can generate reports for one or more Milestones from the Milestones tab of the Learners placement or from the landing page that appears after approving a Milestone. These reports can be exported and provided to your learners or relevant 3rd-parties.
Generating a Placement Report:
- Navigate to the Milestone tab for the relevant Learner’s placement
- Click the Generate Report button
- Select the Milestones you want to include in the report
- Once at least one Milestone is selected, select Continue to generate the report
- Once generated, the report can be exported as a PDF
Milestones F.A.Q
What happens if I update a Milestone after I have created a placement with it?
Milestone criteria are applied at the time of completion. Changes to a Milestone's configuration will not affect existing log entries or reverse a completed Milestone. If Milestone or placement is complete, it will not change; if a Milestone or placement is incomplete, then this will update to reflect the changes made against the Milestone.
Planned Milestones Improvements
We plan to add additional functionality to Milestone as this feature matures. Some items on our roadmap for this product include the following:
- Adding Milestones to the learner app & aXcelerate app
- The ability to use Milestones as an element within Learning Plans
- Milestones reports
- Supervisor checklist
- Milestones Presets
- Milestone Versioning