The short version
Every TESS AI apprentice has a line manager at work. Most of those managers have never read the apprenticeship standard their apprentice is on. That's the gap.
Coachy Manager Mode lets the line manager sign in alongside the apprentice. Managers learn the AI & Automation Practitioner Level 4 (ST1512) standard, understand what good evidence looks like, and learn to spot KSB-mappable moments in everyday work. They do not see the apprentice's conversations. The thinking space stays the apprentice's.
Manager Mode is included free with every TESS AI apprenticeship. One nominated manager per apprentice.
The unspoken problem with apprenticeships
Apprenticeships work best when three relationships pull in the same direction: the apprentice, the Skills Coach, and the line manager at work. Most apprenticeship programmes invest heavily in the first two relationships and effectively ignore the third.
The result is a familiar pattern. The apprentice attends a workshop, learns a framework, returns to work full of intent, and finds that the manager either does not know what KSB stands for, has not seen the standard, or wants the apprentice to focus on something other than the apprenticeship. Months later, the portfolio is thin, the manager is frustrated that "this apprenticeship doesn't seem to be working," and the apprentice is caught between two worlds.
The Skills Coach can do a lot, but they are not in the apprentice's workplace every day. The line manager is. So if the line manager does not know how to spot a KSB-mappable moment, those moments evaporate.
Coachy Manager Mode is built around this problem.
What Manager Mode does
Coachy Manager Mode is a sign-in option in coachy.tessgroup.co.uk available specifically to the line managers of enrolled TESS AI apprentices. It is not a separate product. It is the same Claude-powered AI tutor, with the system prompt re-pointed for the manager's perspective.
Three jobs Manager Mode is designed for:
Understand the standard
Managers learn the AI & Automation Practitioner Level 4 (ST1512) standard at their own pace. What it covers, what's expected, what good looks like. Without sitting the course.
Spot KSB-mappable moments
The apprentice's day job is the richest source of evidence. Manager Mode helps line managers recognise when a real workplace situation maps cleanly to a KSB so they can flag it in real time.
Recognise good evidence
BCS expects evidence written in the apprentice's own voice, against a specific KSB or AO. Manager Mode shows managers what strong evidence looks like, so they can encourage the apprentice to capture it well.
Reinforce TESS coaching
The Skills Coach delivers fortnightly 1:1 sessions and runs gateway reviews. Manager Mode helps the workplace manager reinforce that coaching between sessions, instead of pulling in a different direction.
The privacy boundary, by design
The most important thing Manager Mode does not do is read the apprentice's conversations.
This is hard-coded into the product. Apprentices and managers are separate users. They each have their own sign-in, their own scope, and their own session. The manager sees the course, the standard, and coaching frameworks. The manager does not see what the apprentice asked Coachy at 11pm on a Tuesday, what they were stuck on, or how they worked it through.
This boundary matters for two reasons.
First, the apprentice needs a thinking space. Adult learners on apprenticeships are often working through real workplace situations they're not sure they got right. They have to feel safe asking Coachy a clumsy question. If the manager could read their chats, that safety would disappear, and Coachy would become a surveillance tool. We are uninterested in building that.
Second, the manager doesn't need it. The job of the manager is not to oversee the apprentice's thinking. It's to set the conditions for that thinking to happen, and to recognise when good thinking turns into KSB-mappable evidence. Manager Mode gives managers that capability. It does not, and should not, give them visibility into the apprentice's interior monologue.
Day-to-day examples
Three real situations Manager Mode is built for:
1. The post-workshop debrief
The apprentice came back from a Module 5 workshop on AI agents. The manager has not done the apprenticeship. The manager wants to ask "what's actually changed in your day-to-day this month?" but doesn't know what to listen for. Manager Mode lets the manager spend 15 minutes understanding what Module 5 covers and what evidence the apprentice should be capturing, before the conversation. The 1:1 becomes substantive instead of generic.
2. The "is this evidence?" conversation
An apprentice and their manager just finished a real piece of work, an AI workflow they shipped together that saved the team 6 hours a week. The apprentice mentions it in passing. The manager, in Manager Mode, recognises that this maps cleanly to KSBs around process automation, stakeholder management, and measurable impact. The manager flags it as "this should go in your portfolio" before the moment evaporates.
3. The pre-EPA briefing
EPA gateway is six weeks away. The Skills Coach has briefed the apprentice. The manager wants to support but doesn't know what BCS will assess against. Manager Mode walks the manager through the six Assessment Outcomes (AO1 to AO6), what Pass and Distinction look like for each, and what the apprentice's manager-shaped role is in the run-up. The manager turns up to the next 1:1 with concrete questions instead of vague encouragement.
How it complements the Skills Coach
Manager Mode does not replace the named TESS Skills Coach. The Skills Coach is the relationship that drives an apprentice's progression, gateway readiness and EPA preparation. Coachy Manager Mode is one of the four layers of TESS support that make the Skills Coach's job easier, alongside Coachy itself, OneFile, and the cohort community.
The way to think about it: the Skills Coach is the strategic relationship; Manager Mode is the daily reinforcement. One delivers; the other reinforces. They are designed to operate in the same direction.
How managers get set up
During induction, each apprentice nominates one approved line manager. The manager receives a magic-link invitation to coachy.tessgroup.co.uk. They sign in with the same passwordless flow as the apprentice. Their access is allowlisted; only nominated managers can sign in. There's nothing for the manager to install, no password to remember, and nothing to maintain.
Manager Mode is included free with every TESS AI apprenticeship enrolment. Levy-funded employers and SME co-investment employers both receive it as part of the standard package, no add-on cost, no per-seat licence.
Why we built it this way
The honest reason is that we wanted to fix something we'd watched for years. Apprenticeship completions and Distinction rates are, in the UK, far more correlated with manager engagement than they are with the quality of the training provider. We can be the best apprenticeship provider in the country (we believe we are, on AI) and still have apprentices fall behind because their manager doesn't know what good looks like.
So we made the manager part of the build, not an afterthought. Manager Mode is not a marketing layer on top of Coachy. It's a different system prompt, a different scope, a different set of allowed conversations, and the same rigorous EPA-safe constraints. It is the closest thing in UK apprenticeship-tech to "we built the workplace manager into the product."
Want Manager Mode for your team's apprentices?
Coachy Manager Mode is included with every TESS AI apprenticeship. If you have apprentices on the AI & Automation Practitioner Level 4 (ST1512) and want their managers to engage properly with the standard, this is the path.
Book a discovery call →Frequently asked questions
Can the manager see the apprentice's conversations?
No. Apprentices and managers are separate users with separate scopes. Managers see course content and coaching frameworks. Managers do not see learner conversations. This is hard-coded by design.
Can a manager nominate themselves?
No. Each apprentice nominates one approved line manager during induction. Self-nomination by a manager is not permitted. This protects against scenarios where a manager could pressure their way into the system without the apprentice's consent.
What if the apprentice's manager changes mid-programme?
The apprentice can re-nominate. The previous manager's access is revoked from the allowlist; the new manager receives a fresh magic-link invitation. The transition is administered by the TESS apprenticeships team.
Is Manager Mode available for non-AI apprentices?
Currently Manager Mode is scoped to the AI & Automation Practitioner Level 4 (ST1512) standard. Other TESS apprenticeship standards are on the Coachy roadmap, and Manager Mode will follow as those standards come online.
How long does it take a manager to feel useful with Manager Mode?
Most managers get value in a single 30-minute session. Asking Coachy "explain ST1512 in plain English, then tell me what kinds of work my apprentice could turn into evidence" gets a substantive answer in two minutes. The compounding value comes from coming back to it, not from a single deep dive.
Can my organisation get analytics on Manager Mode usage?
An employer-facing analytics view is on the Coachy roadmap for late 2026, including Manager Mode engagement data alongside apprentice activity. Today, employer reporting is delivered via the standard TESS account-management cadence and via OneFile.