Pick your entry level
Everyone starts with the safe baseline, then joins the level that matches the work they actually do.
The programme
Foundation to Gold. One spine, five levels
A structured pathway from a safe AI baseline through practical adoption, role-specific capability and project-led transformation.
Personalised progression
Built around progression, not attendance
The pathway is designed to support people at different stages of life and work. This includes students, apprentices, employees, graduates, career changers, NEET learners, displaced workers, managers and future leaders.
The aim is not simply to complete learning. The aim is to build confidence, apply capability, evidence progress and improve future prospects.
How it works
Three steps from first session to proof
Work through guided sessions
Each level runs as weekly sessions with a workbook. Progress, sprints and milestones are tracked as you go.
Leave with evidence
Completed checkpoints generate a certificate and a portfolio an employer can read in minutes.
The levels
What each level delivers
Foundation
AI readiness for every learner and employee
12 guided hours
Establish a safe baseline. What AI is, where it fails and the personal guardrails everyone needs before using it at work.
- Explain what generative AI can and cannot be trusted to do
- Recognise hallucination, provenance gaps and prompt injection
- Apply data protection rules to everyday AI use
- Distinguish AI-assisted work from AI-generated work
Bronze
AI productivity for everyday roles
18 guided hours
Turn the safe baseline into practical daily productivity. Prompting, drafting, summarising and checking outputs.
- Structure prompts that produce usable first drafts
- Summarise meetings, documents and threads reliably
- Plan and sequence tasks with AI support
- Check outputs against sources before use
Silver A
Function and workflow capability
24 guided hours
Apply AI to a specific function and workflow, with quality checks and multi-disciplinary working.
- Map an existing workflow and locate AI opportunity points
- Apply function-specific AI use in marketing, finance, HR or operations
- Work across disciplines on a shared improvement
- Design quality checks appropriate to the risk level
Silver B
Data, digital, sector or technical capability
24 guided hours
Build the technical and data-enabled underpinning. Data use, security awareness, automation and sector context.
- Use and interrogate data responsibly to support AI work
- Apply cyber and security awareness to AI tooling
- Explain AI infrastructure basics in plain English
- Build a simple automation that removes manual effort
Gold
Project and transformation capability
36 guided hours
Lead an employer-recognised change. Map the opportunity, redesign the workflow, own governance and measure impact.
- Map opportunities and prioritise by value and risk
- Redesign a workflow end to end
- Own governance, risk logging and escalation
- Engage stakeholders through a change
Who it is for
One pathway, four audiences
Learners
A route from first AI lesson to a credential employers recognise.
Colleagues in work
Reskill and step up without leaving the job you are already doing.
Tutors and assessors
Ready-to-use sessions, teaching points and consistent evidence checks.
Employers
Live briefs and a talent pipeline shaped around real business problems.
How modules stay current
Who shapes the pathway
Module content is reviewed against what employers are hiring for, what members see in their sectors and what tutors and learners find works in delivery.
| Who | What they shape |
|---|---|
| Employers | Job roles, live briefs, skills gaps and what job ready means in practice |
| Members and delivery partners | Specialist sector knowledge, module updates and assessment support |
| Tutors and educators | Teachable activities, delivery structure and assessment evidence |
| Learners | Reflections, outputs and practical feedback from real tasks |
| Sponsors | Reach, sector involvement and regional impact |
| Government support | Policy direction, funding signals and national skills priorities |
| Public services | Civic need, service design insight and responsible adoption in public roles |
| Support groups and charities | Inclusion, community reach and routes for people facing barriers to work |
| Research and surveys | Market signals on changing AI, data and digital skill requirements |
What changes by level
Foundation
Shared baseline. Safe use, trust, ethics, data protection, human judgement and evidence.
Bronze
Practical adoption. Everyday AI productivity in real roles and tasks.
Silver A and Silver B
Function, sector and vocational relevance shaped with employers and members.
Gold
Live projects, workflow redesign, innovation and employer challenges.
Advanced and future modules
Smart Data, open finance, AI governance, automation and sector-specific adoption as the market moves.
How levels evolve
From baseline skills to advanced workplace relevance
Foundation and Bronze create a safe, practical baseline. Silver, Gold and future advanced modules are where employer and market input becomes increasingly specific. These modules can evolve around job roles, sectors, functions, partner needs, vocational routes, Smart Data policy, AI governance, automation, data-enabled services and project-led innovation.
- Silver modules can become more function-specific and vocational.
- Gold modules can centre on live projects, innovation, workflow redesign and employer challenges.
- Advanced modules can follow partner needs, sector change, regulation and new AI capability.
- Members and partners regularly feed in what is changing in the market.
- Learners work on evidence and projects that employers can recognise and inspect.
As the pathway matures, more specific vocational and sector modules can be added around partner needs, job roles and emerging market shifts. These may include Smart Data, open finance, AI governance, cyber and data protection, workflow automation, customer operations, SME productivity, public-service innovation and sector-specific AI adoption.
Continuous improvement
Built to stay relevant
AI Edge Skills is designed as a living pathway, not a fixed course catalogue. Employers, members, sponsors, educators, tutors and learners continually feed into the programme so modules stay close to the labour market, real job roles, emerging AI practice and changing organisational needs.
Employers
Provide live briefs, job-role insight, skills gaps and feedback on what job ready means in practice.
Members and delivery partners
Contribute specialist knowledge, sector context and module updates.
Tutors and educators
Translate market needs into teachable, assessable learning experiences.
Learners
Provide evidence, reflections and practical feedback from real tasks, projects and placements.
Sponsors
Help extend reach, relevance, sector involvement and regional impact.
Proof of concept
25 learners, one representative starting point
The first proof of concept will run with 25 learners through a hybrid model across college, home and on-the-job settings. The cohort will include a mix of students, colleagues, apprentices, NEET learners and people affected by AI displacement in the labour market. Everyone will complete Foundation to establish a shared responsible-AI baseline. Most will progress into Bronze to test practical AI productivity and work-readiness. A smaller number will move into Silver and Gold activity, where advanced modules and projects can be shaped by partners, the delivery team and live market drivers.
The aim is not to prove the model only works for one group. The aim is to test how the pathway supports different starting points, different levels of confidence and different routes into work, reskilling and progression.
See the proof of conceptThe demonstrator
See how the pathway works in practice
The portal is the working demonstrator behind the proposition. It shows the levels, sessions, module library and the evidence learners build. The public site explains why the programme matters. The portal shows how it runs.