The programme
Start with your current capability and the next step you want to take. Your route should reflect your goals, relevant experience and the programme's agreed requirements.
Shared foundations
Foundation is a named entry programme. The shared foundations are the principles that remain active through Bronze, Silver, Gold and any specialist learning.
As work becomes more specific or complex, trust, ethics, safety and human judgement become more contextual, not less important.
Two ways to progress
Develop more demanding capability where your goals and responsibilities require it. Progress depends on relevant evidence and review, not attendance alone.
Apply existing capability in a new setting, refresh knowledge or respond to change. Meaningful progress does not always mean moving to a higher level.
Someone may use Foundation confidently in everyday life and return later for a particular need. Another person may develop specialist capability through Silver while refreshing a foundational topic. Both are valid journeys.
How it works
Existing capability should count. Discuss what you already understand and can demonstrate, identify gaps and agree relevant development with the delivery team. Prior learning informs the decision where programme rules allow. It does not enable self-awarded progression or automatic exemption from prerequisites.
Organisations can shape delivery around their people, working patterns and priorities. Sessions can run weekly, two sessions can be delivered in a day where appropriate, or learning can be grouped into modules spread across several weeks. The timetable can change, but the agreed guided learning hours, learning outcomes, practical evidence and assessment requirements remain within the EAS programme framework. We agree the delivery plan with you, including time to practise, reflect, receive feedback and demonstrate capability.
Build a portfolio of practical evidence. Completion and any certificate depend on tutor review against the agreed programme requirements.
Supported application
Learning can draw on tasks from education, everyday life or work. Use synthetic examples or information you have permission to use. Teaching, feedback and peer discussion help you understand the result, not simply produce it. Any group support or individual coaching is agreed in the delivery plan, not automatically included.
01
Agree the need, starting point, approved tools and what a useful result would look like.
02
Apply learning, challenge assumptions and record where the tool helped or got things wrong.
03
Explain your choices, discuss feedback and retain responsibility for decisions. Tutor review determines programme completion.
04
Capture the output, your checks and reflection. Saved evidence supports progress, but attendance or activity alone does not award a level.
Foundation to Gold describes increasing depth of capability, not five separate AI scores. Learning in your own setting does not mean EAS connects to your workplace systems or monitors your activity there.
EAS and other learning
Free AI learning can be a useful starting point. If it meets your needs, use it. EAS is designed to add support where you need help turning learning into responsible capability in your own setting.
You may want guidance on a relevant task, feedback on your work or a clearer way to demonstrate what you can do. An organisation may need to connect individual learning with team practices, human oversight and its own priorities.
The EAS continual learning and development spine is designed to connect these needs through shared foundations, relevant pathways, supported practice and reviewed evidence. Partners can tailor the application around their people and retain their own identity and specialist expertise.
Bring what you already know. Your starting point and any further evidence needed are agreed through review, not assumed from a course badge alone. Return when a new role, task or change creates a reason to learn again.
Choose the support you need. Delivery, review, follow-up and any costs are agreed for your programme; ongoing support is not automatically included.
The levels
The guided hours shown are for the wider programme framework. The Newcastle College PoC follows its fixed October to December timetable and does not claim those totals unless its approved delivery supports them.
AI readiness for every learner and employee
12 guided hours in the programme framework
Establish a safe baseline. What AI is, where it fails and the personal guardrails everyone needs before using it at work.
AI productivity for everyday roles
18 guided hours in the programme framework
Turn the safe baseline into practical daily productivity. Prompting, drafting, summarising and checking outputs.
Function and workflow capability
24 guided hours in the programme framework
Apply AI to a specific function and workflow, with quality checks and multi-disciplinary working.
Data, digital, sector or technical capability
24 guided hours in the programme framework
Build the technical and data-enabled underpinning. Data use, security awareness, automation and sector context.
Project and transformation capability
36 guided hours in the programme framework
Lead an employer-recognised change. Map the opportunity, redesign the workflow, own governance and measure impact.
Build on what you know. Return for what changes.
Beyond Gold, not another level
A new role, task or ambition may create a reason to return. Relevant refreshers and further learning build on earlier achievements rather than treating every change as a reason to start again.
Availability, support and any cost depend on your programme. A refresher does not automatically renew a certificate or award a new level.
Evidence at a point in time
EAS provides evidence-based programme recognition and certificates. Certificates depend on tutor review against the agreed programme requirements.
We intend to seek external accreditation, subject to the relevant approval process. This is a future intention, not a claim that EAS recognition is already externally accredited or a regulated qualification.
Completion records what you demonstrated against agreed requirements at that time. It does not guarantee permanent competence across every future tool, role or setting.
Further learning should preserve earlier achievements while making clear what new evidence or review is needed.
Focus areas
Edge AI Skills can be tailored around priority sectors, regional opportunities and real employer challenges. These examples show how focus areas give partners a practical way to sponsor modules, contribute expertise, run live briefs and help learners apply AI to the work that matters.
AI for planning, estimating, health and safety, retrofit, digital models, site coordination and evidence-led project work.
AI for productivity, quality, maintenance, process improvement, design support, robotics awareness and operational insight.
AI for content, design, data, customer journeys, automation, product thinking and responsible digital delivery.
AI for open finance, payments, fraud awareness, customer insight, governance, embedded services and data-enabled innovation.
AI for sales, marketing, finance, admin, customer service, operations, productivity and everyday decision-making.
AI for Net Zero, public value, community challenges, inclusion, poverty reduction and regional resilience.
AI for merchandising, stock and demand insight, customer service, personalisation, marketing content and responsible use of customer data.
AI for document review, research support, drafting, matter preparation, client communication and professional judgement under supervision.
AI for research, analysis, proposal writing, client reporting, workshop support and evidence-based recommendations.
How modules stay current
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 |
Shared baseline. Safe use, trust, ethics, data protection, human judgement and evidence.
Practical adoption. Everyday AI productivity in real roles and tasks.
Function, sector and vocational relevance shaped with employers and members.
Live projects, workflow redesign, innovation and employer challenges.
Smart Data, open finance, AI governance, automation and sector-specific adoption as the market moves.
How levels evolve
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.
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
Edge AI 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.
Provide live briefs, job-role insight, skills gaps and feedback on what job ready means in practice.
Contribute specialist knowledge, sector context and module updates.
Translate market needs into teachable, assessable learning experiences.
Provide evidence, reflections and practical feedback from real tasks, projects and placements.
Help extend reach, relevance, sector involvement and regional impact.
The demonstrator
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.
Ways to take part
People arrive with different time, confidence and goals. These six routes all connect to the same shared foundations, so any first step can grow into the full pathway.
The full journey. Four levels that build applied capability step by step, with tutor review, saved evidence and EAS programme recognition at each level.
About an hour, guided and low pressure. See what applied AI looks like in your own work or study before you choose a longer route.
Work through materials in your own time, alongside work or study. Progress is saved and can be discussed with a tutor when you are ready.
A short, focused block of days working with others on a real challenge from a workplace or community, with guidance throughout.
A short event where small teams take a real problem from a workplace or community and build a workable response. Ideas are tested quickly, reviewed against evidence and the best can be taken forward.
Live sessions on a single topic such as responsible AI, data protection or leading change. A space to ask questions and compare views.
| Focused challenge blocks | Innovation sprints | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | A few days, often spread across a short period | One short, intensive event |
| Pace | Steady and guided, with time to practise | Fast, with ideas tested quickly |
| Main aim | Build skills while working on a real challenge | Produce a workable response to a real problem |
| Working style | Learning together with guidance throughout | Small teams shaping and refining ideas |
| Outcome | Saved evidence and new confidence | Tested ideas, with the strongest taken forward |
Want to hear when tasters, self-paced learning, challenge blocks, sprints or workshops open? Register your interest and we will be in touch.
Register interestTasters, self-paced materials, focused challenge blocks, innovation sprints and workshops are being developed. Dates, lengths and formats will be confirmed with delivery partners before they open.
EAS focuses on adults, colleges and workplaces. Younger learners are well served by specialist youth AI programmes and we point to them through our free resources directory, so learning can continue from school into work.
We are also exploring whether EAS activity can count towards established awards and enrichment schemes. Nothing is agreed yet and no recognition is implied.
