UK government trials AI bootcamps for unemployed young people in Preston

Key points

• The UK government launched a pilot AI bootcamp in Preston, Lancashire, aimed at young people aged 16 to 24 who are not working or studying.
• The course runs for three weeks at the Vault, a recently opened community hub near Preston bus station.
• Participants who complete the programme receive an apprenticeship offer.
• The Preston trial is part of a wider north-west England programme testing whether AI skills training can reduce youth unemployment.

A recently opened youth centre opposite Preston bus station is now the unlikely setting for one of the UK government's more direct bets on artificial intelligence, the technology behind chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude.

Inside the Vault, a community hub in the Lancashire city, a group of 16- to 24-year-olds are working through an AI bootcamp, a short intensive training course. It targets young people known as NEETs: those not in education, employment or training, a group that has frustrated successive governments. We first reported on this scheme on 13 August, when the plan was announced; what's different now is that real participants are in the room.

Finish three weeks and you get an apprenticeship offer. That's the carrot the government is dangling to persuade young people that AI is worth learning rather than fearing.

What is the government actually trying to do here?

The goal is to use AI skills as a bridge into work, not a barrier. Most public debate about artificial intelligence centres on job losses. This programme bets it can create a pathway into employment instead.

Even basic AI literacy, knowing how to use AI tools, how to prompt them, how to spot their mistakes, is becoming a baseline expectation in many workplaces. Young people who arrive with that knowledge start ahead. The Preston bootcamp, first reported by The Guardian, is one of the earliest concrete examples of that idea being tested with real participants rather than in a policy document.

What does this mean for young people?

For a NEET teenager in Lancashire, the offer is concrete: give us three weeks and you get a route into work. That's a meaningful proposition in areas where apprenticeship opportunities have historically been thin.

This is still a pilot, though. Three weeks is a short time to build skills that hold up in a fast-moving field. Whether the apprenticeships on offer are quality placements in AI-adjacent roles, or simply jobs where AI training is incidental, isn't clear from the available detail. That's the question worth watching as the north-west trial reports results.

What the programme does signal is that the government sees AI training as something that should reach young people outside university, in community settings, in cities like Preston.

Common questions

Who can apply for these AI bootcamps?

The Preston pilot targets 16- to 24-year-olds who are not currently working or studying. It's running as a trial in north-west England, so availability elsewhere isn't confirmed yet.

Do participants need any prior knowledge of AI or computers?

The source doesn't specify entry requirements, but bootcamps aimed at this group are generally designed for people with no specialist background. A three-week format suggests it starts from basics rather than assuming existing technical skills.