Casestudy:GivinganedTechpioneerastrongervoice

Onefile has been helping people learn at work for 20 years. The Manchester company pioneered the learner management platform, and its software has supported the training of more than two million people on apprenticeships and workforce development programmes.

A long track record brings its own communications challenge. Onefile operates in a crowded edtech market where competitors fight hard for attention, and it needed to show that its understanding of the skills sector ran as deep as its heritage. That need sharpened as a new leadership team arrived, backed by owners Harris Computer, with ambitious plans for growth.

Branagh PR worked with Onefile between 2023 and 2026, through a period of considerable change for the business and for the further education sector it serves.

Starting with the evidence

Our first major campaign tackled a major problem for the FE & Skills sector. Little more than half of apprentices in England were completing their programmes, well short of the Government's 67% target, and each year tens of thousands of learners were dropping out.

We built the campaign around original research. In partnership with the Association of Apprentices, we surveyed 195 apprentices. We then put the same core questions to training providers and employers, drawing responses from Onefile's network of more than 1,000 providers and a group of almost 90 employers.

The findings became a white paper, Maximising Apprenticeship Success: The Case for Learner Engagement. Some made for uncomfortable reading. More than half of apprentices said their programme had caused them stress or anxiety in the past year. Every group agreed that apprentices needed more time for off-the-job training during work hours.

The report fed a media campaign aimed at the FE trade press and informed sessions at industry events. It also set the context for the launch of Onefile Engage, a platform built to keep apprentices connected with the people supporting them. As Davinder Aujla, Onefile's Executive Vice-President, put it at launch: "We hope this report ignites positive conversations in workplaces about striking the right balance for apprentices, between their work and studies."

Telling the story of a new chapter

By 2025, its 20th anniversary year, Onefile had a new brand and, from the autumn, a new leadership team. The company had a strong story to tell, and we developed a communications plan to tell it with confidence to employers and training providers.

The plan put the leadership team front and centre. We produced first-person opinion pieces with Davinder and planned a Meet the Team blog series introducing the senior leaders. In January 2026 we published her look ahead to the year, setting out how Onefile would embed AI in its platform and tailor its service to sectors such as the NHS and policing.

We also wrote copy for Onefile's new website, giving the refreshed brand a clear and consistent voice in its most important shop window.

Keeping pace with reform

Skills policy has rarely moved faster, and Onefile's customers need help making sense of it. When the Budget brought changes to levy funding and apprentice pay, we turned around a response within a week that explained what the reforms meant for levy-paying and smaller employers. The publication of draft funding rules for apprenticeship units in March 2026 prompted a practical guide for training providers.

Knowing the competition

We ran regular competitor monitoring for Onefile, combining AI tools with desktop research and media analysis to benchmark its messaging and visibility against its main rivals. Each report came with a one-page summary of the risks to watch and the actions we recommend. That intelligence helped to shape decision making, providing invaluable insights in a fast-changing marketplace.

The results

FE Week reported the completions research under the headline "Off-the-job 'confusion' sparks apprentice mental health warning", quoting Onefile's conclusion that "Employers have a legal obligation to provide enough time during working hours for their apprentices to complete their OTJ work. This is clearly not happening often enough."

FE News has given Onefile's leaders a regular platform. It announced Davinder's appointment as Managing Director and later published a bylined article from Chief Technology Officer David Harwood, making the case for open technology standards across the sector. Onefile's standing has also been recognised with a shortlisting at the UK IT Awards.

David Howlett, Marketing Director at Onefile in 2025, described the partnership: "Tim combines strategy and tactics. He advises us on what we should do in the longer term, balanced with his management of all day to day activities. Tim is a valuable part of our marketing planning and activity."

Across three years, the work followed a consistent thread. Onefile's knowledge of learners and the organisations that train them is its greatest asset. Our role has been to turn that knowledge into content its audiences value and act on, and to make sure it reaches them in the places they already look.