UK Funds Preston AI Bootcamp for Young People Outside Work or Education

The UK government is funding a Preston pilot that puts AI training in front of young people who are outside education and work, or at risk of reaching that point. Its wager is direct: teaching AI skills could create a route into entry-level jobs even as the technology raises questions about the future of those jobs.

The taxpayer-funded programme is open to up to 70 people aged 16 to 24. It runs for three weeks and is aimed at people who are not in education, employment or training, commonly shortened to Neet, as well as people at risk of joining that group.

IN4 Group, which is contracted to run the programme, teaches participants to build AI tools, understand how businesses use them and use the technology responsibly. The design goes beyond basic familiarity with a chatbot: it presents AI as something trainees should be able to apply in a workplace.

The programme’s distinguishing feature is what comes after the course. JD Sports, Heinz and Agilysys are among employers offering AI-focused apprenticeships to participants who complete it. The advertised roles split into two tracks: AI marketing specialist work for aspiring content creators, and IT helpdesk roles requiring AI expertise.

The policy is built around two ideas that should not be collapsed into one. The government’s stated aim is to help address youth unemployment while preparing young people for possible AI-driven changes to entry-level work. But the available evidence does not establish how AI is affecting non-graduate employment.

That distinction matters for judging the pilot. A King’s College London researcher said AI’s effect on the non-graduate labour market remains unclear. He identified two tests for the scheme: whether the training is thorough enough, and whether apprentices make a meaningful difference to employers’ productivity.

The Preston course is therefore not simply a response to a presumed wave of AI job losses. It is a small effort to give people who may be distant from the labour market a foothold in skills employers say they need. Whether that foothold leads to sustained work, rather than only a short training experience or a limited set of apprenticeships, is the question the pilot is positioned to help answer.