Phil Smith
Chair, Skills England
Skills England has also been working fast, with employers, Government, academics, AI experts and other key partners, on a new training package to help everyone capitalise.
Opportunities and challenges with AI adoption
For context, AI adoption could boost the economy by up to £400 billion by 2030 through enhancements in innovation and workplace productivity.1 Meanwhile, jobs directly involving AI could rise from 158,000 in 2024 to 3.9 million by 2035, according to projections.2
But our research found major challenges with upskilling. A key barrier to adoption was poor understanding among employers of what’s meant by AI skills — along with what their staff actually need to learn.
Skills England is tackling that by making free tools available to businesses, helping them identify their AI skills needs and plan how to upskill their workforce.
Apprenticeship units are short, flexible training courses to help respond quickly to evolving skills needs
AI and automation practitioner apprenticeship
We’ve launched an AI and automation practitioner apprenticeship with employers. Apprentices are learning to identify where AI and automation can save time, reduce costs and improve performance. Another expectation is learning how to use AI safely, responsibly and ethically. By embedding good practice from the start, employers can avoid common pitfalls like data breaches and reputational damage.
There’s also a new apprenticeship unit, covering ‘AI Leadership and developing AI strategy’. Apprenticeship units are short, flexible training courses to help respond quickly to evolving skills needs.
Added to this, we’ve worked rapidly with tech companies to ensure courses chosen for the AI Skills Boost programme, launched in January by the Department for Science, Innovation and Skills, provide the quality and capability businesses need now. Every adult in the UK is eligible to take them for free.
And everyone who completes the courses, checked against Skills England’s skills for work benchmark, will receive digital badges recognising what they have learned. That’s a simple idea that will make a huge difference.
These are all great examples of innovative approaches, built around government and industry collaboration, which are helping us keep pace with remarkable technological change. We’re all pulling together to meet the government target of providing 10 million workers with the AI skills they need by 2030.3
[1] Department for Science, Innovation & Technology. (2025). AI opportunities action plan. https://tinyurl.com/4frkp7wp.
[2] Department for Science, Innovation & Technology & Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2026). AI skills for life and work: labour market and skills projections. https://tinyurl.com/y7hwd3xt.
[3] Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, Skills England & The Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP. Free AI training for all, as government and industry programme expands to provide 10 million workers with key AI skills by 2030. https://tinyurl.com/t6as9nkc.
