Labour’s AI training website flops

Labour’s new AI skills training website has been labelled a “damp squib” as new sign-ups stall and online traffic sinks.

Around 66,000 people have signed up to the Government’s AI Skills Hub since it launched six months ago as part of a drive to train 10 million people by the end of the decade.

But Telegraph analysis shows that just 4,400 people have created accounts over the past month, suggesting a marked slowdown in new registrations. Most courses on the hub require users to sign up for an account.

The Government revealed the AI Skills Hub in January as part of an initiative to teach people how to better handle AI chatbots through free courses. Labour claimed the training programme would be the biggest in the UK since the launch of The Open University in 1971.

However, the flagship website for the programme has been criticised by the Conservative Party as a “gimmick”, while academics have said the site lacks “guidance, structure and coherence”.

While tens of thousands of people have signed up to the Skills Hub website, it remains a small fraction of the Government’s target of 10 million.

Ministers last week said the wider AI skills programme, which also includes industry partners such as Accenture, Amazon, Barclays, BT and Google, had already delivered 1.7 million courses.

However, the official website was criticised after The Telegraph uncovereda number of out-of-date or entirely non-existent courses featured in its catalogue. Many other links were to paid-for university courses or information sites from the tech industry.

New data also show that the total number of visitors to the skills website has collapsed since its launch.

Fewer than 60,000 people visited the site last month, down from around 250,000 in February, according to data from online traffic analysts Semrush.

Julia Lopez, the shadow technology secretary, said: “Labour’s AI Skills Hub has proved to be another damp squib from this Labour Government.

“The real stats on how many people are actually using this thing are totally at odds with what ministers are trumpeting.

“It’s an initiative that gives a short-term headline, just like the CV-writer tool launched this week – a three-month pilot to arm jobseekers with AI slop when what they need is a job to go to.

“Young people need a strong economy where employers can afford to hire them, not Labour gimmicks that fail to deliver.”

Sir Keir Starmer has sought to bolster Britain’s AI skills and has encouraged government departments to use the technology. The Government has also launched its own official chatbot and is exploring the use of AI bots to help job seekers.

It comes amid growing concerns that people across the UK lack the digital and AI skills for a modern workplace. 

Meanwhile, a recent review by Alan Milburn of youth unemployment warned of a “national crisis”, leaving young people struggling to find work.

The AI Skills Hub cost the taxpayer £4m, according to procurement documents. The service, built by PwC, was billed as providing people with the “skills needed to use simple AI tools effectively in the workplace”.

But Ed Newton-Rex, a campaigner at the AI non-profit Fairly Trained, said: “It is not surprising that usage of the AI Skills Hub is low. It is a largely useless boondoggle that, somewhat incredibly, costs the taxpayer £4m.”

A government spokesman said: “While the AI Skills Hub is a key part of upskilling our workforce, it is one element of much larger efforts delivered both online and in person to reach our target of 10 million by 2030 – and users are not required to sign up to access all courses.

“AI Skills Boost will continue to accelerate in the years ahead. In its launch year alone, we increased our target from 7.5 million to 10 million workers, expanded from 11 partners to 32 leading organisations, and as of April, over 1.7 million AI upskilling courses have been delivered.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]