Coaching sessions with apprentices require detailed, feedback reports, which are a critical component of compliance. However, creating these reports takes substantial time. With two-hour coaching sessions conducted four days per week, coaches spend approximately four hours per week on report writing. This takes time away from other essential duties including scheduling, marking, preparing live training sessions, and providing the additional support that directly impacts apprenticeship success rates.
Rather than investing in expensive AI transcription tools (which would exceed £1,000/month in licensing alone), I created a custom AI-powered coaching report assistant:
Voice-to-Text Input: Coaches used voice dictation to read their coaching notes into the system
Few-Shot Prompting & Chain of Thought: The prompt was engineered to guide the AI to think through the coach's language patterns, reasoning, and coaching philosophy before structuring output
Structured Report Generation: The system created formatted reports that closely matched the coach's natural writing style
Guardrails Against Hallucination: Strong constraints ensured the AI only synthesised actual coaching notes never invented points or added clichéd language
Human Quality Gate: Every AI-generated report was reviewed and refined by the coach before delivery to apprentices
Transcription Tool Costs: Commercial solutions like Co-Pilot transcription exceeded £1,000/month and could miss critical discussion points around progression, feedback.
Maintaining Coaching Voice: Ensuring the AI captured the coach's unique language and perspective rather than defaulting to generic coaching terminology
Accuracy & Hallucination Prevention: The system needed to synthesise notes without fabricating details or adding filler content like overused phrases ("game changer")
Prompt Engineering Precision: Required careful few-shot examples and chain-of-thought guidance to train the AI on the specific format and tone needed
The system reduced report time from an average of 30 minutes per to approx 12 minutes reclaiming over two hours per week from a full coaching schedule. This time was re-invested into high-impact activities: additional 30-minute support sessions with apprentices, marking assessments, and planning for training sessions. The solution kept the quality through human review, while improving efficiency.