AI Driven Assessment, Designed for Assessors
The Future of Assessment
Discover how EQUAL Sigma is transforming feedback in further education. Built around the real workflow of assessors, Sigma combines AI efficiency with human expertise to deliver personalised, supportive feedback at scale, saving time while keeping learners at the heart of the process.
As an Ofsted ‘Good’ provider, The Skills Network understands the challenges of managing assessment and assessors. With around 250,000 assignments marked each year through a combination of internal and freelance assessors, we face the same challenges you do: recruitment, ongoing training and development, quality management and standardisation, all in a climate of increasing regulation and decreasing funding. This is why we are developing tools such as EQUAL Sigma to support FE providers.
EQUAL Sigma is The Skills Network’s AI-driven assessment tool, built inside our proprietary EQUAL platform to support assessors. Sigma combines assessment expertise with advanced AI to deliver personalised, learner-centred feedback at unit level, not just question level.
Unlike other tools, Sigma is designed around the assessor’s workflow, mirroring how they review, reflect, and guide learners while ensuring human judgment remains central to ensure Ofqual compliance. It tailors feedback to each learner’s journey, integrates wider educational criteria, and produces supportive, constructive feedback that assessors validate before submission.
With Sigma, assessors gain more time to focus on what matters most: targeted interventions, additional learning support, sharing industry experience and insights, and offering personal and career development support.
Sigma handles the heavy lifting of feedback preparation, giving assessors more time to focus on what really matters: supporting learners.
Every learner’s journey is unique. Sigma adapts feedback to their goals, strengths, and challenges, creating guidance that feels relevant and personal.
Built around the real workflow of assessors, Sigma mirrors how professionals review, reflect, and provide feedback, ensuring it feels natural, not forced.
From detailed question-level insights to holistic unit-level feedback, Sigma ensures learners receive clear, constructive, and supportive guidance at every step.
Fully aligned with Ofqual guidelines, Sigma ensures human judgment remains central to the assessment process.
Goes further than the qualification spec, helping learners improve in critical areas like British Values and SPaG (spelling, punctuation, and grammar).
Sigma delivers efficiency without replacing expertise. Every AI-generated draft is validated by an assessor, ensuring feedback is both high quality and human.
Meet EQUAL Sigma
A demonstration of our AI-powered tool for assessments.
To find out how Sigma can help provide smarter feedback and more time for teaching, please complete the form below.
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“Good assessment starts with understanding the learner. We’ve built Sigma with this learner-centred approach in mind, bringing into the AI engine information on the learner’s intent combined with other background information, to create personalised and more learner-centred feedback.”
Liam Sammon – Executive Director for Education Services at The Skills Network
Policy position (24 April 2024)
Ofqual explicitly states: “the use of AI as a sole marker of students’ work does not comply with our regulations. Ofqual reached this view partly because such use does not meet requirements for a human based judgement to be used in marking decisions.”
Read more here: Ofqual’s approach to regulating the use of artificial intelligence in the qualifications sector
