There is now free AI training for everyone in the UK
The AI Skills Boost put a set of free short courses online, built by Accenture, Google, IBM and Microsoft and measured against a national benchmark. A sensible first step.
In January 2026 the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology launched the AI Skills Boost: a package of free short courses, online, open to everyone in the UK. The courses were built by Accenture, Google, IBM and Microsoft, and Skills England assesses them against a new benchmark called AI foundation skills for work.
What the benchmark covers
- Understanding the risks that come with AI
- Writing prompts for generative AI tools
- Reading and interpreting data through AI dashboards
- Automating routine tasks
Completing a course earns a badge that can be put on a CV or a profile. The stated ambition behind it is large: ten million UK workers upskilled by 2030, against an estimate that AI could add £400 billion to the economy over the same period.
Use it, and know where it stops
For an employer this is an easy thing to put in front of a team, and there is no reason not to. It will lift the floor. Somebody who has never written a prompt will write a better one afterwards.
What it does not do is answer the questions a manager is actually stuck on: which of our processes is worth changing, what will this supplier's product really do, who is accountable when it gets a decision wrong, and what do we tell a customer when it does. Foundation skills and leadership judgement are different things, and only one of them is free.
The sensible sequence is to use the free courses across the team, then put the two or three people who will actually decide through something that goes further.
Source: Skills England, AI Skills Boost and the AI foundation skills for work benchmark, January 2026.