Barely three months after publishing yet another ‘skills’ white paper—close to 100 pages diagnosing the UK’s long‑running skills crisis and promising new technical qualifications, NEET initiatives and rebrands for further and higher education—the government has unveiled something very different. And arguably, something that should be closer to the reality facing workers in the 2020s.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has launched a new AI Skills Hub, https://aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ offering short, practical online courses designed to help people use AI tools at work. Ministers say the move has the backing of business groups and trade unions, with some courses taking less than 20 minutes. If that sounds optimistic, AI itself maintains that basic skills can be learnt “surprisingly fast”, and that tools like Copilot, ChatGPT, Midjourney and Claude can boost productivity almost immediately.
The government describes the programme as a partnership with major tech firms, delivered through agencies that have already run more than a million courses since last summer. In reality, the content isn’t new. And according to the Telegraph (30 January), many of the courses are “potentially bogus”, out of date, or simply redirect users to existing tech‑company pages—some of which lead nowhere.
Giving it a go and completing a short Accenture session fronted by “Alex”, a bot, on the strengths and limits of generative AI was interesting enough, but not really useful to immediate workplace practice – a bit like telling a learner driver how a car engine works before letting them near the wheel.
Still, ministers insist the need is urgent. With research indicating only 21% of UK workers feel confident using AI, far less than the number ( some surveys putting this at 50%) that feel their jobs are threatened by it, the government argues that wider adoption could unlock up to £140bn a year in economic growth and free workers for higher‑skilled roles.
Much of the public debate has focused on threats to high‑profile professional and creative jobs once thought immune to automation – university professors, lawyers, artists and musicians have expressed high levels of anxiety. But the more immediate pressure is on the routine roles that millions carry out. However, rather than mass redundancies among established staff—the group the government claims to be targeting—the likelier scenario is (with only one in six businesses currently up to speed with AI ) that of a managed exodus – positions quietly disappearing as workers retire or move on.
Entry‑level jobs are already being trimmed back. Ironically, it’s Generation Z—the most digitally fluent cohort—who are losing out fastest. And that raises a bigger question: whether the government’s quick‑fix training offer is a serious response to the structural longer term changes reshaping the labour market, or simply a convenient distraction?
Education, Economy and Society 