2025 Q4 Product Release

This year, our intelligent RPL platform, VelvetPath, evolved from an assessor-first tool into a full, end-to-end RPL platform for the vocation education and training sector. Our focus has been on strengthening assessor capability, improving the student experience, and building a more stable, enterprise-ready foundation.

1. Strengthening the Assessor Platform

We started the year by solidifying the core assessment workflows. Key improvements included:

• Support for diverse evidence types (PDFs, images, videos)

• Automatically pull latest content for each qualification directly from traning.gov.au based on the unit code

  

• Apart from the performance criteria, we added the knowledge evidence as part of the evaluation process

  

• Improved workflows for photo evidence

• Support export of RPL outcomes in csv and PDF formats

• Assessor assessment assignment based on unit

• Secure email verification and role-based controls

  

• A customisable RPL document checklist for each qualification 

  

These upgrades ensured assessors had a clear and consistent process to follow.

2. Launch of the Student-Facing Platform

We expanded VelvetPath to include a dedicated student experience, enabling assessors and students to collaborate directly and centralise evidence collection.

Highlights:

• Direct communication pathways between students and assessors

• Added step-by-step RPL application progress tracking

  

• Ability to allow students to upload subsequent evidence based on requests  

• Allowing students to add comments to the evidence submitted

  

  
  

• Offer a white-label solution to Registered Training Organisations. This feature allows students to view the RTO's name and logo on the platform, which builds trust and reduces friction in the student experience.

  

This significantly reduced back-and-forth and improved the clarity of the student journey.

3. Better Evidence Processing

We strengthened our evidence-processing engine to handle real-world RPL complexity:

• Evidence auto-mapping now enabled by default

• More resilient handling of large PDFs

• Document processing is now faster and more efficient, running asynchronously in the background so users don't have to wait around

  

• Cleaner CSV exports with approval timestamps, assessor identity, and real document names 

These updates make evidence handling faster, clearer, and more reliable.

4. Intelligent Interview Assessment Tools

To support a more complete and competency-aligned assessment process, especially where gaps remain after document review, we introduced:

• Selectable, AI-generated interview questions based on learner evidence submitted for each Unit of Competency

• Compiled interview question sets that can be exported for video interviews

  

• Alignment with training.gov.au criteria for trade and practical occupations

These tools help assessors form defensible judgements and maintain consistency across assessments.

5. General Experience Improvements

We have completed many minor tasks to enhance the overall user experience, such as:

• Easier Document Review: The document pop-up has been replaced with a "View Document" feature, positioned next to the AI recommendation for quicker review.

• Bulk File Uploads: Users can now upload multiple files simultaneously.

• Enhanced Accountability for Assessors: The "Complete Application" button is now only clickable after all units have been fully assessed and reviewed.

• Faster AI Question Generation: The speed at which AI questions are generated has been improved.

• Continuous AI Evaluation Improvement: We are continuously working on refining the AI evaluation process in the background.
  

What’s Next? 

Our product roadmap for the upcoming year focuses on significant enhancements to improve the RPL compliance and user experience. Key features planned include:

• Expanded File Type Acceptance: We will enable the acceptance of additional file types, such as CSV and Word documents, for evidence submission.

• Integrated Performance Evidence: Assessors will be able to extract observation assessment criteria directly from training.gov.au by integrating Performance Evidence into the evaluation process.

• Student-to-Assessor Notifications: A new notification system will be implemented to automatically inform assessors when students have provided all possible evidence for their RPL claim.

• Enhanced Dashboard Reporting: We plan to introduce comprehensive dashboard reporting capabilities.
  

We greatly value your feedback as it is essential for enhancing our platform. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions (partners@theredvelvet.ai).

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to our engineers for all their hard work! We wouldn’t be where we are without their efforts! 

Cheers,

Winnie Tong

Cofounder