New bootcamp upskills Whitehall coders into AI specialists
Source: gov.uk (2025-03-28)

AI Accelerator Programme will enable participants to work on projects across several government departments, including justice, health, and transport, to improve public services, drive efficiencies, and support the Government's broader Plan for Change.

- New programme to upskill droves of data scientists across the public sector into in-demand machine learning engineers, building tech across departments.
- AI experts will build tech to make the justice system more efficient, enhance DVLA systems, strengthen services and drive growth as part of the government’s Plan for Change.
- Follows Prime Minister announcing plans to double digital workforce to tackle “flabby” state, in bid to grasp £45 billion in productivity savings offered by tech.
Data scientists will be upskilled into AI specialists by a new scheme starting today, as the government looks to use the technology to fix public services, save the taxpayer money and drive growth as part of its Plan for Change (https://www.gov.uk/missions).

Across 12-weeks, the first run of the AI Accelerator Programme will train up 25 Machine Learning Engineers through hackathons, where the coders will help tackle live government challenges.

Technical experts from justice, health and transport authorities will join the programme before returning to their departments with new skills to build AI tools that can help reduce backlogs, save money, and stop officials and the public from wasting time on bulky processes.

Today’s news follows the Prime Minister announcing plans to double the number of digital experts in government departments, as the government seeks to transform public services and find £45 billion in productivity savings from AI and digital technology.

AI and Digital Government Minister Feryal Clark said:

We have started to build generative AI chatbots to change how people interact with the state, AI helpers to put an end to the mindless hours we spend on hold waiting for someone to pick up the phone, and tools to help get the views of citizens on policy proposals much more quickly – but AI can help with so much more.

There is no reason people shouldn’t expect the same experience from public services, as they get from the most innovative businesses. By building AI skills across government, we’ll be able to deliver just that – all while finding efficiencies and transforming services to deliver our Plan for Change.

A Data Scientist from the UK Health Security Agency starting the AI Accelerator Programme today said:

I am very excited for the opportunity to develop and utilise skills in AI. There is so much potential to use AI to improve how we work in my agency and in healthcare more widely.

The programme will help me understand what we need to think about when building AI in the public sector, including how to manage data safely and be transparent in our work.

A Data Scientist from Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) who is also starting the programme today said:

I am very excited for the opportunity to take part in the AI Accelerator Programme. It will be fantastic to collaborate with other data scientists across the civil service to produce machine learning models that are streamlined, responsible, effective, and explainable.

After completing the programme, I’m looking forward to being able to deploy models into production as this will be a huge benefit to the organisation.

Participants from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Welsh Government, Scottish Government, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), DVLA, and more will join the programme, which will include a major component focused on the ethics of AI.

Here, learners will explore the frameworks needed to ensure that AI technologies are used responsibly and ethically within public services. This includes tackling issues like transparency, accountability, and bias to ensure AI works fairly for everyone.

Notes to editors

The AI Accelerator Programme is being delivered with Decoded, a training company that specialises in building AI skills. Richard Peters, CEO of Decoded, added:

At Decoded, we are proud to partner with the government to launch the AI Accelerator Programme. This initiative will empower civil servants with the skills to effectively implement AI solutions, helping government departments unlock the power of data to improve services, decision-making, and security.

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