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AI Skills Boost and the AI Skills Hub explained
UK government AI training
UK government AI training means the free AI Skills Boost programme, run by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology with industry partners and Skills England. This guide explains what is on offer, who can take it, what the foundations badge recognises and where an employer's own training has to take over. predeploy is not part of the scheme; we explain it because buyers ask how it relates to workplace training.
Know what the free government courses cover, how to point staff to them, and what your organisation still needs to teach about its own tools and rules.
BBC reporting describes the UK rollout of workplace AI courses. BBC: workplace AI training ↗
Government announced free benchmarked AI courses for all UK adults and a target of 10 million workers by 2030. GOV.UK: free AI training for all (28 January 2026) ↗
New to the topic? Read the background on artificial intelligence.
AI Skills Boost and the AI Skills Hub explained
What is AI Skills Boost?
A government and industry programme offering free AI courses to every UK adult, with a target of 10 million workers trained by 2030.
The AI Skills Boost explainer, published by DSIT on 28 January 2026, describes the programme as a government-industry initiative to upskill 10 million UK workers in AI skills by 2030. It reports 1,001,147 AI training courses completed since June 2025, according to completion data shared by eleven industry partners, and says partner-level breakdowns are not shared.
The same day's GOV.UK press release states that every adult in the UK is eligible to take the free courses. The 10 million figure is a target for 2030, not a count of people trained. For an employer, the useful point is simpler: a free introductory course exists, and staff can take it without a procurement exercise.
Private-sector teams can compare options on AI training UK.
Run by DSIT and Skills England
Free for every UK adult
Target: 10 million by 2030
Delivered with industry partners
AI Skills Boost and the AI Skills Hub explained
What do the free courses teach?
Foundation skills for using simple AI tools at work, such as drafting text, creating content and handling administrative tasks.
According to the press release, a selection of industry-developed courses on the government's AI Skills Hub has been checked against Skills England's AI foundation skills for work benchmark. Some take under 20 minutes. They teach the use of AI for tasks like drafting text, creating content and completing administrative work. Learners who complete selected courses receive a virtual AI foundations badge.
Foundation means foundation. A short course can explain what a chatbot is, how to phrase a request and why output needs checking. It cannot teach your approved tools, your information boundaries or your review standards, because it does not know them. AI literacy training is the workplace equivalent: the same ground, taught on your material.
AI Skills Boost and the AI Skills Hub explained
Who runs the courses and the AI Skills Hub?
Industry partners provide the courses; government hosts the hub and the benchmark.
The January 2026 announcement describes the courses as industry-developed and names new partners including the NHS and techUK, alongside business representative organisations and industry partners; the explainer's completion figures come from eleven industry partners. The hub lets users create a learning profile and follow a tailored learning path beyond the foundations training.
Because the courses come from vendors, many teach a vendor's own tools. That is useful when it matches what your staff use and less useful when it does not. Check which provider's course you are recommending before sending a team to it. The government's separate AI skills tools package is aimed at employers planning adoption rather than individual learners.
| Check | What to establish |
|---|---|
| 1 | Courses from named partners |
| 2 | Hub hosted by government |
| 3 | Learning profile and path |
| 4 | Match courses to your tools |
AI Skills Boost and the AI Skills Hub explained
How can an employer use the free training well?
Use it as shared vocabulary, then teach the workplace decisions it cannot cover.
A practical sequence: ask staff to complete a foundations course before an internal session, so time together is spent on real tasks rather than definitions. Follow it with a short session on approved tools, information that must not be entered and who reviews what. AI training for small businesses shows how that works with a small team; AI training for employees covers the everyday routine.
Keep a simple record of who completed what. The badge shows that a course was finished; it does not show that someone can use your system safely on a client's file. That second question is answered by watching people do the task. Pair the free course with a written AI policy so the rules learners hear are the rules the organisation has agreed.
AI Skills Boost and the AI Skills Hub explained
What else did the January 2026 announcement include?
Funding for tech jobs and degrees, and a new unit to study AI's effect on work.
The press release announced £27 million for TechLocal, part of the £187 million TechFirst programme, to help employers fill or create up to 1,000 tech jobs and to fund AI degrees and graduate traineeships. It also launched an AI and the Future of Work Unit to research AI's economic and labour-market effects. These are separate from the free courses and are aimed at education providers, employers and policy rather than individual learners.
The government also cites its own research that only 21% of UK workers feel confident using AI at work. Whatever the exact figure in your organisation, confidence follows practice on real work. If your team needs more than a foundations course, AI training for business and AI training courses UK explain the workplace options.
£27 million TechLocal funding
Part of £187m TechFirst
AI and Future of Work Unit
Separate from free courses
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Choose a task connected to uk government ai training and enter its current workload. This gives you a baseline to discuss before buying training or commissioning a build.
A baseline is useful even if you decide to keep the process manual. Measure the work that matters, then compare quality and review effort as well as time.
Assess the workflow before changing it, or plan business AI training if the gap is how people use existing tools.
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People × minutes × weekly tasks ÷ 60. A workload baseline from your inputs, not a prediction of AI time savings. Include review and support time when comparing a proposed workflow.
A useful AI investment leaves your team able to do the work and judge the result.
Continue with the right question
Where should you go next?
Use the overview for context, then follow the pages that match your delivery decision.
See our ai training service or read the ai training for business overview.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Evidence and further reading
Which sources support the guidance?
Source links support the specific background described here. The practical checklists and illustrative examples are predeploy’s guidance.
BBC reporting describes the UK rollout of workplace AI courses. BBC: workplace AI training ↗
Government announced free benchmarked AI courses for all UK adults and a target of 10 million workers by 2030. GOV.UK: free AI training for all (28 January 2026) ↗
DSIT reports 1,001,147 AI training courses completed since June 2025, from partner completion data. GOV.UK: AI Skills Boost explainer ↗
Government guidance includes a framework and employer adoption checklist. GOV.UK: AI skills tools package ↗
Background reading on the broader field of artificial intelligence. Wikipedia: artificial intelligence ↗
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