Every adult in the UK is eligible to take free, newly benchmarked courses to gain practical AI skills for work, the Government has announced.
The free foundation level training will upskill 10 million people, Liz Kendall MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology said in late January 2026.
A Government news release said: In order to make Britain the fastest adopting AI country in the G7, the UK is setting ambitious targets to ensure the workforce is adequately skilled, confident and ready to grasp the full opportunities of AI. This could create more higher-skilled jobs and free workers up from routine tasks, with increasing the adoption of AI potentially unlocking up to £140 billion in annual economic output (note) as part of our plans for national renewal.
Newly announced partner organisations include the British Chambers of Commerce, Cisco, Cognizant, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Institute of Directors (IOD) – Local Government Association (LGA), Multiverse, NHS, Pax8 and techUK will unlock AI upskilling for even more workers.
They will join founding partners Accenture, Amazon, Barclays, BT, Google, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Sage, SAS and Salesforce to take the AI Skills Boost programme to the next level and upskill 10 million workers with AI skills by 2030.
A selection of industry-developed AI courses, newly available on government’s AI Skills Hub, have been checked against Skills England’s AI foundation skills for work benchmark, with those who complete these courses receiving a virtual AI foundations badge.
Research found only 21% of UK workers feel confident using AI at work, and adoption remains low with only 1 in 6 UK businesses using AI as of mid-2025. UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) report a lower rate of AI adoption, with micro businesses 45% less likely to adopt AI than large businesses.
Tina McKenzie, Policy Chair at the Federation of Small Business, said: “Small businesses want to make the most of AI, but just under half (46%) say they don’t yet have the skills or knowledge to use it well. This ambitious partnership will help them – and their workforce – make the most of the new technology. It’s good to see the government ensuring the benefits of AI reach real people because after all, adopting new technology is the key to a competitive economy.”
