Teaching AI to school leavers as vital as maths and English, says Euan Blair’s start-up

Training company set up by Sir Tony Blair’s son extols virtue of technology as university students await their A-level results

Euan Blair Sir Tony Blair Multiverse AI technology education
Euan Blair’s company Multiverse will offer all apprentices AI training from September Credit: Pool/Max Mumby/Getty Images

Artificial intelligence (AI) skills will be as important as English and maths, Euan Blair’s apprenticeship company has said as it launches new training.

Multiverse, which matches school leavers with more than 300 employers including Google and Morgan Stanley, and provides on-the-job training, will offer all apprentices AI training from September.

The start-up, founded by Sir Tony Blair’s son, works with thousands of apprentices in the UK.

Rebecca Agostino, the vice president of delivery at Multiverse, said: “We’ve been working on AI for many years internally at Multiverse, supporting some of the most exciting AI companies with their skills strategies – and in the coming years, I strongly believe that AI skills will be just as important for workers as English and math are today.”

She added: “This is an urgent cause: when we polled our apprentices, around half weren’t using ChatGPT in their daily work. That’s a massive missed opportunity which, unless corrected, could see them falling behind. 

“We shouldn’t leave it to chance, and instead go out of our way to ensure workers have the skills they need to capture the benefits of these tools.”

A poll of 1,000 business leaders by the company found that 83 per cent plan to implement urgent AI training for their staff.

Multiverse will teach them how to critically evaluate AI outputs as well as mastering basic skills such as “prompt writing”, the process of prompting AI tools with text input to achieve the desired response.

It will also teach apprentices critical thinking and leadership to ensure they are well-placed to adapt to the AI tools of the future.

The news came as Clare Marchant, the head of the Universities and Colleges Admission Service, said students who miss out on their first choice university place this summer could switch to apprenticeships amid cost of living pressures.

She said: “The question is, when the chips are down come August 17 [A-level results day], do we see a cohort then switch to apprenticeships if they don’t get their first choice? Potentially.

“The ‘earn while you learn’ versus going to university might seem an even more attractive option than it has in the past.”

Sophie Ruddock, the chief operating officer of Multiverse, said: “Many of our apprentices turned down uni offers because they saw an apprenticeship offered a better route to achieve their goals.

“Our apprentices will typically out-earn university graduates when they complete their programmes, with almost half making more than £30,000 by the time they complete, compared to the average graduate salary of £24,000.”


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