United Kingdom · Learning and development · Senior (5-8 years)

Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

Free to start: a plan built for this role, and a Future Fluency module to try first. No card.

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One email: what AI is changing in this job, and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

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  • Experience bandSenior (5-8 years)
  • Direct reportsNo direct reports
  • Reports toManager, Learning Analytics & Impact
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Senior Learning Analyst · Learning Impact Lead · Evaluation Consultant (L&D)

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

NCC Education Level 5 Extended Diploma in Computing with Data Science NCC Education Limited · Level 5 · covers 2 of 6 standards
Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Computing for England Pearson Education Ltd · Level 5 · covers 2 of 6 standards
Level 6 Award in Data-led Decision Making Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 6 · covers 1 of 6 standards
Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Digital Technologies Pearson Education Ltd · Level 5 · covers 1 of 6 standards
Level 6 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 6 · covers 1 of 6 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Introduction to Data Science and Big Data NCC Education Level 5 Extended Diploma in Computing with Data Science
Data Analytics Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Computing for England
Data-led Decision Making Level 6 Award in Data-led Decision Making
Apply the Concepts of Data Science to Computer Engineering NOCN Level 5 Diploma in Computer Engineering (Information Technology and Data Science)

The future skills this job leans on

Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
Your Plan Illustration

Built for Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist

4 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Introduction to Data Science and Big Data NCC Education Limited · covers 2 of 6 standards Level 5
  2. Data Analytics Pearson Education Ltd · covers 2 of 6 standards Level 5
  3. Data-led Decision Making Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 1 of 6 standards Level 6
  4. Apply the Concepts of Data Science to Computer Engineering NOCN · covers 1 of 6 standards Level 5
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skill this role is being asked for

  • Strategic Storytelling & Influence
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist plan as you set up, starting with a Future Fluency module on using AI in your job. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

3What this role really is

This job checks whether learning programmes work and whether they change behaviour on the job. The work goes beyond satisfaction scores, looking at whether training changes what people do and whether it helps the business.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Workday Learning / Cornerstone OnDemand (LMS/LXP) Advanced

Writing custom reports, understanding the underlying database schema, using APIs to pull data directly, and troubleshooting data discrepancies between the LMS and other systems. You're not just running standard reports; you're extracting the raw data you need.

Qualtrics / Questionmark (Survey & Assessment) Advanced

Designing complex, multi-branching surveys, implementing advanced features like conjoint analysis, and consulting on the psychometric soundness of assessments. You're building robust data collection instruments.

Using Power Query for advanced data cleaning and transformation, building complex data models, and creating sophisticated visualisations when other tools are overkill. You can make Excel sing.

Using pandas for advanced data manipulation and cleaning automation, Matplotlib/Seaborn for custom visualisations, and scikit-learn for basic statistical modelling and machine learning applications in evaluation contexts. You're comfortable writing and debugging your own scripts.

Tableau / Power BI (Data Visualization) Advanced

Building complex, interactive dashboards from scratch that tell a clear story. This often involves writing SQL to query data warehouses directly and designing executive-level reports that drive decisions.

Workday HCM / SAP SuccessFactors (HRIS) Advanced

Directly querying HRIS data (with appropriate permissions, of course) to correlate learning data with performance ratings, promotion rates, and attrition data. You understand how to link learning to broader HR metrics.

SQL (Structured Query Language) Intermediate

Writing queries to extract specific datasets from various databases (LMS, HRIS, business systems) for analysis and visualisation. You don't need to be a database administrator, but you can get the data you need.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Evaluation Methodology & Design Follows pre-defined templates and methodologies, with all designs reviewed by a senior team member. Designs evaluation plans for individual programmes within established frameworks; seeks manager approval for novel approaches. Designs and owns the evaluation methodology for entire curricula or strategic initiatives; consults with manager on highly novel or high-risk approaches, but generally has autonomy.
Data Analysis Techniques Performs basic data cleaning and descriptive statistics using Excel, under direct supervision. Independently uses Excel and basic Python/R for statistical analysis; consults on advanced techniques. Selects, applies, and interprets advanced statistical methods (e.g., regression, ANOVA) independently; advises junior team members on best practices.
Recommendations to Stakeholders Contributes to sections of reports, focusing on presenting data clearly, not making recommendations. Formulates recommendations for programme owners based on findings; seeks manager review before presenting. Develops and presents strategic, actionable recommendations directly to senior leaders, backed by robust data, with minimal oversight.
Mentoring & Guidance Focuses on personal learning and skill development. Provides informal support to new joiners on routine tasks. Actively mentors 1-2 junior analysts, providing technical guidance, code reviews, and helping them navigate complex project challenges.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Reduction in Time-to-Insight for Major Programmes
How quickly we can get meaningful evaluation data and recommendations back to programme owners after a learning intervention.
Target · 30% reduction on average for strategic programmes

If a major leadership programme used to take 8 weeks to get Level 3/4 insights, you'll aim to get that down to under 6 weeks by streamlining data collection and analysis.

Influence on New Strategic Programme Designs
The percentage of new, high-impact learning programmes where your evaluation strategy was integrated from the very start, shaping their objectives and measurement approach.
Target · >75% of new strategic programmes

You're brought into the design phase of the new Sales Enablement curriculum, defining the Level 3 behavioural metrics and Level 4 sales uplift targets before content is even built.

Accuracy and Defensibility of Evaluation Models
The reliability and validity of your measurement approaches and the robustness of your statistical analysis, ensuring findings stand up to scrutiny from senior business leaders.
Target · Zero significant challenges to data integrity or methodology in executive reviews

Your ROI calculation for the new onboarding programme is presented to the CFO, and they accept the methodology and findings without needing major revisions or questioning the data sources.

Level 3 Data Collection Response Rates
The percentage of managers or participants who complete observation forms or follow-up surveys designed to capture on-the-job behaviour change.
Target · Achieve >60% response rate on average

For a programme targeting new managers, you design a concise manager observation form and achieve a 65% completion rate, giving us solid evidence of behaviour change.

Credibility with Senior Stakeholders
How much senior leaders trust your insights and proactively seek your input on learning strategy and impact.
  • You're regularly invited to strategic planning meetings for L&D and business units. Leaders ask for your opinion before making decisions about learning investments. They reference your data in their own presentations.
Quality of Insights and Recommendations
The clarity, actionability, and strategic relevance of your evaluation findings, leading to tangible improvements in learning programmes.
  • Your recommendations are consistently adopted by programme owners, leading to measurable improvements in content, delivery, or targeting. Feedback from programme leads highlights the value of your insights.
Mentorship Effectiveness
How well you support and develop junior members of the team, helping them grow their skills and confidence.
  • Junior analysts proactively come to you for advice on complex problems. They show measurable improvement in their analytical skills and ability to present findings. You help them unstick tricky data issues.
Proactive Problem Solving
Your ability to anticipate potential issues with data collection or evaluation design and address them before they become bigger problems.
  • You flag potential data integrity issues early in a project. You propose alternative measurement approaches when initial plans hit roadblocks. You identify gaps in our current evaluation frameworks and suggest solutions.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Making a Tangible Business Impact

You get a real buzz from seeing your analysis lead to a change in a learning programme that then demonstrably improves employee performance or business results. You want your work to matter, not just sit in a report.

Your evaluation shows that a particular module in the sales training isn't effective, and based on your recommendation, it's redesigned, leading to a measurable increase in sales conversions.

Solving Complex Puzzles with Data

You love the challenge of taking messy, disparate data sets and piecing them together to uncover insights. The trickier the problem of proving causation, the more engaged you are.

You're given a vague request to 'prove the value of leadership training' and you enjoy the process of breaking it down, identifying key metrics, and building a robust measurement plan.

Driving Data-Driven Decision Making

You're motivated by the idea of moving an organisation away from gut-feel decisions towards evidence-based strategies, particularly in L&D. You want to be the one providing that evidence.

You present findings to a senior leader who was initially sceptical about a programme's impact, and your data convinces them to reallocate budget based on your recommendations.

What frustrates people
  • The Impossible ROI Request: You'll be asked to 'prove the ROI' of a mandatory compliance or soft-skills programme with no pre-agreed business metrics, which can feel like an exercise in creative accounting.
  • Vanity Metric Obsession: Some stakeholders will refuse to look past 'butts in seats,' completion percentages, and high 'smile sheet' scores, ignoring your deeper analysis that shows the programme had no real behavioural impact.
  • LMS Data Wrangling: Honestly, you'll spend a significant chunk of your time exporting messy, inconsistent data from a clunky LMS, then manually cleaning and reformatting it in Excel before any real analysis can even begin. It's not glamorous.
  • The 'Level 4' Black Hole: Business leaders will enthusiastically support a programme, but when you follow up three months later for the crucial business impact data (like sales figures or efficiency metrics), they're suddenly 'too busy' to provide it.
  • Political Pressure Cooker: You might feel implicitly (or explicitly) pressured to find a positive story in the data for a senior executive's pet project, even when the results are mediocre or, frankly, negative. It's a fine line to walk.
  • The Manager Compliance Wall: Your entire Level 3 measurement strategy often depends on managers completing observation checklists for their team members, but you get a 15% response rate because 'they don't have time.' It's incredibly frustrating.
What this role does not give you
  • A perfectly clean data set handed to you on a silver platter every time.
  • A guarantee that every single one of your recommendations will be immediately adopted.
  • A quiet, solitary role where you just crunch numbers without interacting with people.
  • A role where you don't have to push back on unrealistic expectations or challenge assumptions.

8Who you work with

This role directly influences how we design, deliver, and fund our most important learning initiatives. Your work helps us prove the value of L&D to the wider business, ensuring our programmes aren't just 'nice to have' but are genuinely driving performance and strategic goals. Get it right, and we're investing in the right things; get it wrong, and we could be wasting significant budget on ineffective training.

Inside the business
  • Director of Learning & Development
  • Business Unit Heads (e.g., Head of Sales, Head of Product)
  • HR Business Partners
  • Learning Programme Owners
  • Senior Project Managers
Outside the business
  • Learning Content Vendors
  • External Research Partners (occasionally)
  • Industry Bodies (e.g., CIPD)

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven experience (5+ years) in a dedicated learning evaluation, HR analytics, or business intelligence role, where you've owned end-to-end evaluation projects.
  • Demonstrable experience applying the Kirkpatrick and Phillips ROI models in real-world scenarios, not just theoretical understanding.
  • Advanced proficiency in at least one statistical programming language (Python or R) for data analysis, beyond just Excel.
  • Strong experience building interactive dashboards in Tableau or Power BI that have actually been used by stakeholders to make decisions.
  • A track record of presenting complex data to senior non-technical audiences and influencing their decisions.
  • Experience informally mentoring or guiding junior team members on analytical tasks.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Causal Inference & Predictive Analytics

The business is increasingly demanding proactive insights, not just retrospective reports. Moving beyond 'what happened' to 'what will happen' and 'what should we do?' is the next frontier. This means designing more rigorous experiments and building models that forecast future impact.

Quasi-Experimental Designs · Time Series Analysis · Machine Learning for Prediction · Experimentation Design (A/B Testing)

  • This week: Read up on a specific quasi-experimental design method (e.g., difference-in-differences) and consider how it could apply to one of your current programmes.
  • This month: Complete an online course on time series analysis or basic predictive modelling in Python/R.
  • Month 2: Propose and design a small-scale A/B test within an existing learning programme (e.g., two versions of a pre-work module).
  • Month 3: Build a simple predictive model to forecast a key learning outcome (e.g., which employees are at risk of not completing a mandatory course).

Quick win: Start identifying opportunities for small, low-risk experiments within existing programmes. Even simple A/B tests on email subject lines for programme enrolment can build your experience.

AI-driven Evaluation Tools & LLM Integration

Specialised AI tools for learning analytics are rapidly evolving, and Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming how we process qualitative data and generate insights. You'll need to know how to use these effectively and ethically.

Prompt Engineering for Evaluation · Natural Language Processing (NLP) Basics · AI Ethics in Data Analysis · Integration with AI-powered Learning Platforms

  • This week: Experiment with ChatGPT or Claude to summarise a long qualitative report or generate initial ideas for survey questions.
  • This month: Explore open-source NLP libraries in Python (e.g., NLTK, spaCy) to perform basic text analysis on a small dataset of survey comments.
  • Month 2: Research and evaluate 2-3 AI-powered learning analytics platforms or features, understanding their capabilities and limitations.
  • Month 3: Develop a workflow for integrating LLM-generated insights into your standard reporting process, including validation steps.

Quick win: Use an LLM to help you draft tricky emails to stakeholders or summarise long articles. It's a low-risk way to get comfortable with the technology.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attend industry conferences (e.g., Learning Technologies, CIPD Learning & Development Conference) to stay abreast of the latest trends and network with peers.
  • Participate in online courses or bootcamps focused on advanced statistics, machine learning for HR analytics, or data storytelling.
  • Engage with professional communities and forums (e.g., LinkedIn groups for Learning Analytics) to share knowledge and learn from others' experiences.
  • Read academic journals and industry publications on learning science, organisational psychology, and data analytics to deepen your theoretical understanding.
  • Seek out opportunities to present your work internally and externally, refining your communication and influence skills.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

Strategic Storytelling & Influence

It's no longer enough to just present data; you need to craft compelling narratives that genuinely influence senior leaders and drive strategic decisions. The business is demanding more than just numbers; they want a clear 'so what?' and 'what next?'.

  • Narrative Arc in Data Presentation
  • Audience-Centric Communication
  • Framing & Persuasion
  • Visual Communication Design

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Kirkpatrick Model of Evaluation (L1-L4)
  • Phillips ROI Methodology
  • Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method (SCM)
  • Learning Transfer Analysis
  • Advanced Survey Design & Psychometrics
  • Causal Inference Methods

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Learning Evaluation Specialist (L2)

    2-3 years

    Skills to master

    • Independently managing end-to-end evaluation projects for individual programmes, designing measurement plans, building surveys and reports, and presenting findings to the L&D team. You'll need to get really good at the 'why did it happen?' question.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently delivering accurate and insightful evaluation reports for multiple programmes.
    • Proactively identifying issues and proposing solutions for data collection or analysis challenges.
    • Receiving positive feedback from programme owners on the clarity and usefulness of your findings.
  2. 2

    Data Analyst (HR or Business Intelligence)

    3-5 years

    Skills to master

    • Strong proficiency in data cleaning, statistical analysis, and data visualisation using tools like Python/R, SQL, and Tableau/Power BI. You'll also need to build a solid understanding of business operations and how data drives decisions in a commercial context.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Demonstrated ability to extract, transform, and analyse complex datasets from various sources.
    • Experience building interactive dashboards that provide actionable insights.
    • A clear understanding of how analytical findings translate into business recommendations.
  3. 3

    Research Analyst (Organisational Psychology or Social Science)

    4-6 years

    Skills to master

    • Expertise in research design, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, survey construction, and statistical inference. You'll need to translate academic rigour into practical business applications, focusing on understanding human behaviour in an organisational context.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Experience designing and executing robust research studies, including data collection and analysis.
    • A strong grasp of statistical validity, reliability, and ethical research practices.
    • Ability to communicate complex research findings clearly to non-expert audiences.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This work can lead to senior roles shaping how an organisation measures and uses learning data, or to specialist data science roles focused on learning.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist is actually changing.

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Introduction to Data Science and Big Data, worked against Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist.

Introduction to Data Science and Big Data Level 5

Applied to your work in Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist

The objective of this unit is to provide learners with a systematic understanding of Data Science and Big Data concepts, including their characteristics and applications. Learners will develop proficiency in data collection, design, and modelling techniques, and will be able to select appropriate tools for data pre-processing and apply analytical techniques to generate insights from data.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist
  • Kirkpatrick Model of Evaluation (L1-L4)
  • Phillips ROI Methodology
  • Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method (SCM)
  • Learning Transfer Analysis
  • Advanced Survey Design & Psychometrics
  • Causal Inference Methods
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. You'd move from leading complex programmes to architecting the organisation's overall learning measurement strategy. This means setting standards, defining KPIs for major L&D initiatives across the business, and influencing at a much higher, more strategic level.

    • Enterprise Measurement Framework Design Creating scalable and consistent evaluation frameworks for the entire organisation.
    • Advanced Analytics Governance Setting standards for data quality, privacy, and ethical use across all learning data.
    • Technology Roadmapping Collaborating with IT to ensure our learning analytics tech stack meets future needs.
  2. This path takes you into people leadership. You'd be responsible for managing a team of evaluation specialists, securing resources and budget, and ultimately being accountable for delivering all learning insights that influence the L&D portfolio and investment decisions.

    • Resource Planning & Allocation Ensuring the team has the right skills and capacity to meet demand.
    • Vendor Management Overseeing relationships with external evaluation tools and service providers.
    • Strategic Portfolio Management Directing the team's efforts to align with broader L&D and business priorities.
    • Organisational Design Shaping the structure and capabilities of the learning analytics function.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be honest, a lot of the 'grunt work' in learning evaluation can be a real time sink. But what if you could offload the tedious bits and focus on the high-value insights? That's exactly where AI comes in. We're not talking about replacing you; we're talking about giving you a superpower.

Imagine cutting down the hours you spend wrestling with messy data or manually sifting through survey comments. AI tools can handle those repetitive, low-value tasks, freeing you up to do what you do best: deep analysis, strategic thinking, and crafting compelling stories from the data. This isn't just about efficiency; it's about elevating your role and making a bigger impact.

Automated Data Janitor

Use AI-powered scripts (often in Python with libraries like pandas and some clever AI integrations) or specialised tools to automatically pull data from LMS/HRIS APIs. It'll clean inconsistencies, merge datasets from different sources, and flag any weird anomalies that would take you hours to spot manually. Think of it as having a tireless assistant who loves cleaning up digital messes.

Insight Amplifier

Got thousands of open-ended survey comments? Instead of manually coding them for days, feed them into an AI model. You'll get instant sentiment analysis and topic modelling, identifying key themes, pain points, and unexpected insights in minutes. This means you can react faster and get a richer understanding of qualitative feedback.

Instant Lit Review

When you're designing a new evaluation strategy, you often need to ground it in theory. Use an AI research assistant to quickly summarise the latest academic studies and industry whitepapers on specific topics, like 'measuring the impact of leadership coaching' or 'causal inference in HR'. It'll give you a solid theoretical foundation for your measurement strategy in a fraction of the time.

Executive Summary Drafter

After you've done all the hard analytical work, feed your key data points, charts, and conclusions into a generative AI. It can produce a well-structured first draft of your executive summary, PowerPoint narrative, or even a detailed methodology section. This frees you up to refine the message and focus on the strategic implications, rather than staring at a blank page.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist?

Common routes in include Learning Evaluation Specialist (2-3 years), Data Analyst (HR or Business Intelligence) (3-5 years) and Research Analyst (Organisational Psychology or Social Science) (4-6 years). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist progress to?

This role can lead on to Lead Learning Evaluation Strategist (3-5 years) and Manager, Learning Analytics & Impact (4-6 years), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist?

Increasingly, Strategic Storytelling & Influence. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

More jobs in learning and development

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

The skills built here, including data analysis, strategic thinking and using data to influence decisions, transfer to other fields. These skills can lead to roles in HR analytics, people analytics, business intelligence or management consulting in other sectors. The ability to show impact with evidence applies across sectors.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my Senior Learning Evaluation Specialist plan, free What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.