Where we once asked “What can AI do?”, the real question now is whether your business is primed and ready to embrace what it has to offer.
As the UK transitions from the traditional Apprenticeship Levy to the more flexible Growth and Skills Levy, AI apprenticeships are multiplying to meet the needs of businesses navigating this new landscape. These programmes offer a tangible way to combine vital learning and development with practical, real-world applications.
What is an AI Apprenticeship?
An AI apprenticeship is a structured, work-based training programme that combines learning with on-the-job training to develop an employee’s understanding, , from fundamentals to in-depth technical skills, including prompt engineering and machine learning.
Unlike traditional university and weekend courses, they prioritise practical learning, allowing individuals to actively apply their knowledge while working over a period of 12-18 months.
At Corndel, we offer the following AI apprenticeships for people at all stages of their careers:
In partnership with Imperial College and supported by Microsoft, the programmes in our AI Academy are funded under the government's Growth and Skills Levy.
How do AI Apprenticeships work?
AI apprenticeships are suited to existing employees whose day-to-day activities would benefit from AI. They’re designed to fit into a professional’s job, not disrupt it. During an apprenticeship, participants spend about 20% of their working hours learning and applying their skills.
Our programmes incorporate the following principles:
Human-Led Coaching
Every learner is paired with a dedicated Coach. These are industry experts who provide one-to-one coaching, helping professionals navigate the opportunities and challenges of AI integration.
Applied Learning
Participants in our programme spend around 20% of their working week on "off-the-job" learning. This includes time spent applying learning to projects that have a direct impact on their role.
Accessible for non-coders
AI apprenticeships aren't just for people in technical roles. Our programmes focus on strategy or applications that don’t require any prior coding knowledge. This empowers workers in non-technical roles to build their own AI assistants, agents and automated workflows without writing a single line of code.
However, higher-level courses allow individuals to utilise and improve technical and coding skills, ensuring there’s a learning plan tailored to everyone.
Corndel’s AI programmes are built to solve real-world challenges, and we have a broad range of AI apprenticeships at different levels of complexity, providing a clear learning pathway for participants at all stages of their career.
What skills do our AI Apprenticeships develop?
Getting the best out of Microsoft Copilot
Our "Working Smarter With AI" programme empowers your workforce to move beyond traditional digital literacy. By mastering tools like Microsoft Copilot and generative AI, teams can reduce the time spent on administrative tasks and boost their productivity. Built on the Digital Support Technician Level 3 Apprenticeship Standard, this programme is designed for anyone who can use AI as part of their daily activity, improving AI understanding across a wide range of roles.
Taking automation skills to the next level
Our “Automation with AI” programme is built on the new AI and Automation Practitioner Level 4 Apprenticeship Standard and is ideal for individuals seeking to create or manage automations that use AI to improve their team’s processes, systems and workflows. Apprentices build a strong foundation in automation and agentic AI, starting with analysing processes and identifying opportunities for automation.
Participants then cover responsible AI and ethics, data protection, bias mitigation and governance. They develop data fundamentals such as structures, quality and integration, before progressing to designing automation workflows.
From early on in the programme, participants will develop the skills to prioritise initiatives, build scalable data pipelines and deliver practical, user-centred AI-powered process improvements.
Driving AI transformation
The “Business Impact with AI” programme shifts the focus toward AI and data-driven transformation. Apprentices develop the capabilities needed to identify and implement high-impact process improvements that use AI technologies.
Built on the Business Analyst Level 4 Apprenticeship Standard, this programme embeds the techniques for gathering, documenting and validating requirements, securing stakeholder buy-in for AI transformations, and developing robust frameworks for evaluating and measuring their impact.
It's ideal for Business Analysts, strategists and experienced professionals in non-technical roles who want to drive effective AI and business transformation.
Building, integrating and managing AI systems
Our highly technical “Applied AI Engineering” programme develops end-to-end AI engineering capability, starting with how AI reshapes organisations and the principles of responsible, risk-aware implementation.
Apprentices build skills in scoping and prototyping machine learning solutions, then progress into Python programming, model development and production-ready systems.
Built on the Machine Learning Level 6 Apprenticeship Standard, the programme covers data pipelines, feature engineering and optimisation, alongside MLOps and deployment. Participants emerge ready to design, build and manage trustworthy and scalable AI systems that deliver measurable business value.
Which departments benefit most from AI Apprenticeships?
AI is a powerful tool that can benefit every corner of your business. Here are just a handful of ways that organisations can leverage the power of AI:
- Operations: Automating repetitive tasks such as data entry.
- Finance: Using predictive analytics for more accurate forecasting.
- HR & People: Enhancing talent acquisition through automated onboarding journeys.
- Marketing: Scaling content creation while maintaining brand tone of voice through custom-trained LLMs.
- Sales: Deliver tailored customer solutions faster with AI insights, admin automation and smarter engagement.
- Legal and Compliance: Analyse contracts faster, reduce risk, and ensure compliant AI-supported decision-making.
- Technology and IT: Automate systems, enhance security and optimise workflows with AI-driven modern tools.
- Facilities and Workplace Management: Improve workplace efficiency through AI insights, predictive maintenance, and smarter resource utilisation.
- Customer support/Customer Success: Resolve customer issues faster and more effectively using AI automation and intelligent case triage to enable team members to focus on delighting customers.
- Strategy and Corporate: Inform strategic decisions with AI-powered analysis, scenario modelling, and forecasting capabilities.
- Risk and Governance: Detect risks earlier with AI-driven monitoring, automated audits, and predictive insights.
Funding and the Growth and Skills Levy
Our AI programmes are funded by the government's Growth and Skills Levy. The levy works as follows:
- Employers with an annual pay bill of over £3m pay 0.5% of their payroll to the levy
- Employers can draw down on these funds over a period of 12 months to upskill their staff through apprenticeships
- Unused funds expire after 12 months (from August 2026)
- Employers receive an annual tax allowance of £15,000 to offset their payment.
Funding for SMEs
If your business pays less than £3m in payroll, the funding is as follows:
- The government funds 95% of training costs
- You pay just 5% as a co-investment
Why Choose the Corndel AI Academy?
The market is flooded with technical training, but technical skills alone don't move the needle on ROI. The Corndel AI Academy is built on four pillars:
- One-to-one Coaching: each participant is partnered with an expert coach who ensures your people experience personalised support that unlocks their confidence and increases their growth and impact.
- Strategic Partnership: Our collaboration with Imperial College Executive and Professional Education brings academic and industry experts directly to participants, amplifying the high-quality education they receive.
- Measurable Impact: Corndel learners contribute an average of £21,284 in added value to their organisations before they even graduate.
- The Human Element: We focus heavily on the "ABC of DEI", ensuring AI is deployed responsibly, ethically, and inclusively.
Ready to embrace the future of AI?
AI won’t replace professionals, but professionals who use AI will go further than those who don’t. The goal of an AI apprenticeship is to ensure your team is primed and ready to integrate AI into their workflows.
Build a future-ready workforce today. Explore the Corndel AI Academy and book a discovery call to map your organisation’s AI maturity.