Cutting marking time at a regional training provider
How a 4,000-learner provider replaced paper-based controlled assessment with Polaris and gave tutors their evenings back.
- 68%
- less tutor time spent on marking and admin
- 0
- paper assessment packs printed since rollout
- 3 weeks
- from first demo to first live assessment
The challenge
NorthSkill delivers vocational qualifications across four sites. Every controlled assessment meant printing packs centrally, couriering them to sites, and scanning completed scripts back for marking — a cycle that consumed tutor evenings and made results two weeks old before anyone saw them.
What we did
We migrated their existing question banks into Polaris, trained site leads in a single afternoon, and ran the first live assessment with learners on their own phones three weeks after the first demo. Results collate as learners submit; the digital record satisfies their awarding body’s evidence requirements without extra admin.
The outcome
Marking piles are gone, feedback happens in the same lesson, and the quality team pulls audit evidence in minutes instead of days. The January rollout extended Polaris to every qualification they deliver.
The first cohort finished their assessment and the results were collated before the lesson ended. Our tutors haven’t printed a paper pack since.