The government has announced free training to provide 10 million workers with AI skills by 2030.

As part of the joint government and industry programme, every adult in the UK will be able to take newly benchmarked courses to gain practical AI skills.

The target has increased from an original goal of 7.5 million people announced by prime minister Keir Starmer in June last year.

Since then, the programme has already delivered one million courses through industry partners Accenture, Amazon, Barclays, BT, Google, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Sage, SAS and Salesforce.

As part of its announcement on Wednesday, the government revealed that the NHS and local government will also join the scheme, with workers across these public services having access to the free training.

It said that major public sector, business representative organisations, and industry partners onboarding – including Britain’s biggest employer, the NHS – has helped raise the ambition to now reach 10 million workers over the next four years.

This is equivalent to upskilling nearly a third of the country’s workforce, including reaching at least two million SME employees.

Other organisations joining the initiative as part of the new target are the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Cisco, Cognizant, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Department for Education (DfE), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the Institute of Directors (IOD) - Local Government Association (LGA), Multiverse, Pax8 and techUK will unlock AI upskilling for even more workers.

Taking as little as under 20 minutes, the courses are designed to give people the skills needed to use simple AI tools effectively in the workplace and teach the use of AI for tasks like drafting text, creating content and completing administrative tasks.

Technology secretary Liz Kendall is also launching a new AI and the Future of Work Unit to remain "front-footed" in addressing the "inevitable challenges of AI."

The Unit, which is backed by a panel of experts from business and trade unions, aims to provide the best analysis and evidence on AI’s impact on the economy and labour market to provide timely advice on when new policies should be implemented across government.

“We want AI to work for Britain, and that means ensuring Britons can work with AI,” said technology secretary Liz Kendall. “Change is inevitable, but the consequences of change are not. We will protect people from the risks of AI while ensuring everyone can share in its benefits.

“That starts with giving people the skills and confidence they need to seize the opportunities AI brings, putting the power and control into their hands.”

£27 million funding has also been announced to kickstart the government’s TechLocal scheme – part of the £187 million TechFirst programme – which aims to help employers fill or create up to 1,000 tech jobs in communities across the UK and enable new professional practice courses, graduate traineeships, and work experience opportunities in AI.

"We’re delighted to partner with the government to bring Google’s Al resources to even more people through the new Al Skills Boost hub," said Maureen Costello, vice president, UK, Ireland, Sub-Saharan Africa, Google Cloud. "Whether it’s a small business owner or a young professional, the demand for hands-on digital training is soaring.

"AI upskilling initiatives are key to unlocking a productivity boost worth over £400 billion in growth by 2030. Since 2015, we’ve trained 1.2 million people across Britain, and we’re proud to continue this work to transform careers and communities in every corner of the country."

Darren Hardman, Microsoft UK chief executive said AI is such a transformative technology that everyone, no matter their age or job, will need to have the skills to use and benefit from it.

"Not in five years’ time, but now so that we can become better creators, better thinkers, better entrepreneurs and better at competing internationally," he continued. "At Microsoft, we’ve already trained more than 1.5 million people in AI in the UK, and working alongside these partners and the government we’ll train millions more. That’s how we make the most of the opportunity in front of us."

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