The prime purpose for 8People is to drive professional learning. Teachers trained in 8People mentor their colleagues to improve professional skills.

An appraisal is conducted to find professional learning targets by comparing the teacher's performance against the Essentials.

1. The Essentials of the Environment pair - Relationship Builder and Captain - are looked at first.
2. Then Essentials of the Awareness pair.
3. And finally the Essentials of the Teaching pair.

Once an Essential has not been met, a target is found and it becomes the focus for mentoring.