AI skills curricula need faster update cycles, says Coders Guild CEO

Digital and AI skills programmes need faster mechanisms for updating their content as workplace technology and job requirements change, according to Crispin Read, CEO of The Coders Guild.

Read argues that the conventional cycle for developing and approving skills provision risks leaving digital curricula behind changes taking place in the workplace.

'If we were to design a set of pathways now, start delivering them in September 2028, and they're out of date on the first morning. That's not pessimism, it's arithmetic,' he said.

'The valuable thing to build now is the updating mechanism and ensuring a way for content to change every term, in response to what's actually happening in workplaces, without a two-year approval cycle attached to it.'

The argument comes as employers and policymakers contend with changes to entry-level work and the skills required in existing roles. Graduate vacancies advertised through Adzuna fell to 8,383 in July, down 45.6% from 15,397 a year earlier, according to figures reported by the BBC. 

Read expects AI and automation to change skills requirements across a much broader section of the workforce. Recent research from CIPD points to vacancy levels in the UK economy 10% below pre-pandemic levels.

'Everybody's new job, whatever their title, is applying what they know about their organisation to creating, running and keeping control of automations and agents,' he said.

He also backed the use of the Growth and Skills Levy to develop existing employees alongside funding opportunities for young people entering work.

The former Apprenticeship Levy became the Growth and Skills Levy in April. The government has widened the training eligible for levy funding beyond full apprenticeships, while eligible apprentices under 25 have had their apprenticeship training fully funded since August 2026.

Read said funding existing workers and new entrants should not be treated as competing priorities.

'The same levy funds an upskiller safeguarding their career and a school leaver getting their first chance. That's the system working.'

The Coders Guild also argues that technical education should place greater weight on problem solving, communication, research, reflection and learning from failure.

Read said the pace of technological change makes the ability to revise skills provision as important as decisions about its initial content.

'The most important thing to design isn't the curriculum. It's the mechanism that keeps the curriculum current.'