AI Upskilling: The Case for Apprenticeships

As Large Language Models (LLM) like ChatGPT are changing the way we do business, Dale Walker, Director of Education at Apprentify, argues the case for making apprenticeships a key pillar to equip your business for an AI centric future

Faced with what they perceive as a threat to the status quo, human beings will often revert to the ‘freeze’ instinct. The idea of AI is uncomfortable; it shakes up entrenched beliefs about how your business delivers value. But previous revolutions have taught us that doing nothing is not an option. Think back to the Covid pandemic, if companies had not moved to remote or hybrid working, they would have failed; bricks and mortar retailers that didn’t offer an online channel would have gone bust.

AI is Happening and it’s Transforming Business

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic idea; it’s reshaping the way we do business. Looking at studies from the Office of National Statistics, AI adoption by UK businesses increased from 9% in 2023 to around 22% in 2024 with scope for exponential growth.  Particularly with larger organisations, where this figure rises to 31%, businesses are already taking steps to future proof their workforce. And so far, fears of mass unemployment driven by AI have proven unfounded with new AI-related employment rising by 29%.

The Rise of AI Agents

The move from Large Language Models to agentic AI has seen AI move from providing information to making decisions and automating tasks that had previously needed human intervention. A study by Microsoft found that 74% of businesses want AI agents to automate repetitive workflows and reduce operating costs.

We can look at NatWest Bank who have partnered with OpenAI to change the way they combat financial fraud. By cutting the need for call centres and the numbers of employees working on these cases, they have cut costs and reduced the worry surrounding human error. These agents are aligned with the needs of the business, understanding its purpose and completing these tasks at a much faster rate than a person.

What are the Learning and Development Priorities to Get your Business AI Fit?

To make your business fit for the age of AI, Learning & Development (L&D) teams must adopt strategies that build long-term workforce capability. It starts with AI literacy, ensuring that everyone, regardless of their role, understands how AI works and the impact it can have across the business. From there, it’s essential to support employees in applying AI skills in their day-to-day work by upskilling them in areas like data science and AI-driven problem solving. For businesses to succeed, this integration must be across the whole business with technology often bridging departments to create an AI literate and AI capable workforce.

Bootcamps and Budgets

I’m not saying apprenticeships are the only route to AI upskilling your business. Where there is local government funding available, skills bootcamps can provide the sort of short sharp shock of knowledge to fill some key capability gaps. However, these are not available across every region in the country. If you want to give everyone a short awareness course on the possibilities of AI, and budget is available, this may best be delivered as a commercial training option. And many senior employees will need a commercial training programme as they will not have the time needed to complete the course work element of an apprenticeship.

Investment in long term IP

Where apprenticeships come into their own is when you are looking to develop a long-term strategy to elevate your business, investing in emerging talent and creating a new generation of people that not only understand the possibilities of AI, but will be focused on developing solutions that are 100 per cent relevant to your business. AI-driven processes created within your business for your business will become a valuable part of your intellectual property investment; your unique way of doing things that gives you a competitive advantage.

Growing AI Skills at Scale

Added to this is the not insignificant benefit that apprenticeships are largely UK government funded and are available to new and experienced workers alike. So this presents an affordable option to grow and develop your workforce at scale and at the speed you need to face the AI challenges ahead. Apprentices are your employees and will be contributing to your business at the same time as learning new skills. The combination of hands-on experience with formal academic learning allows the apprentices to apply their new skills in a real world setting while also developing the soft skills to enable them to apply this knowledge in the real world.

The Loyalty Dividend

Apprentices will absorb the culture of your business over the term of their programme, and experience shows that when you invest in skills it has the added impact of creating a more engaged and more loyal workforce for the long term. For employers, apprenticeships create a pipeline of talent tailored to their evolving needs, helping to embed AI capabilities, relevant to your business across teams and future-proof the workforce. The AI sector in the UK was valued at £72.3 billion in 2024, making it the third largest AI market in the world after the USA and China. This is not a fad, and this is no time to freeze. It’s time to build your AI equipped team of the future and apprenticeships should be a central component of your strategy.