The department for science, innovation and technology has launched a nationwide initiative to offer every adult in the uk free training in practical artificial intelligence skills for work, describing it as the biggest education giveaway since the open university’s launch in 1971. Working with skills england, the programme aims to improve artificial intelligence literacy across business and industry and has a target to fine tune 10m workers for artificial intelligence’s growing impact on the workplace. An allocation of £27m is announced today as the driver to connect people to tech jobs in local communities, as well as creating new professional practice courses and graduate traineeships, with the goal of ensuring workers benefit from technological change rather than being left behind.
The initiative is framed against new department research that only 21% of uk workers feel confident using artificial intelligence at work and that only one in six uk businesses were using artificial intelligence as of mid-2025, with uk smes reporting even lower adoption and micro businesses 45% less likely to adopt artificial intelligence than larger firms. Industry and business groups including the british chambers of commerce, the cbi and the federation of small businesses back the scheme, arguing that artificial intelligence can raise productivity, accelerate growth and create good jobs, but that businesses and workers need better skills to realise that potential. One survey cited reports that just under half (46%) of small businesses say they do not yet have the skills or knowledge to use artificial intelligence well, and supporters say the partnership can help close that gap and spread the benefits of new technology across the wider economy.
The programme is supported by innovateuk and bridge artificial intelligence and sits within a broader government ambition to make the uk the fastest adopting artificial intelligence member in the g7, a position currently held by italy. The department says increased adoption of artificial intelligence holds the potential to unlock up to £140bn in annual economic output within its wider plans for national renewal. A selection of industry developed artificial intelligence courses is now available on the government’s artificial intelligence skills hub, checked against skills england’s artificial intelligence foundation skills for work benchmark, with completers receiving a virtual artificial intelligence foundations badge. A spokesperson said the courses are open to all uk adults online, taking as little as under 20 minutes, and will teach use of simple artificial intelligence tools for tasks like drafting text, creating content and handling administrative work, with the programme already having delivered one million courses since June.
The drive is intended to be equivalent to upskilling nearly a third of the country’s workforce, with some two million sme employees invited to participate and key beneficiaries expected to include nhs workers, local government staff and partners across the public and private sectors. Officials describe it as the biggest targeted training programme since harold wilson started the open university, and say it is designed both to spread the gains of artificial intelligence and to protect people from its risks by giving them skills and confidence. In parallel, the department is establishing a new artificial intelligence and the future of work unit, supported by a panel of experts from business and trade unions, to provide analysis and evidence on artificial intelligence’s impact on the economy and labour market and advise when new policies should be implemented. The department says the unit will ensure the artificial intelligence transition boosts economic growth, supports workers to adapt, protects communities from the mistakes of past industrial change and delivers a fair, dignified future of work in a more productive economy.
