How to be work ready, in the age of AI, through a digitally empowered UK workforce

Chloe Penfold is Delivery Manager – Restart & Digital Inclusion for Cosmic. Daljish Channa is UKI Corporate Citizenship Lead for Accenture. Cheryl Swales is Head of Strategic Projects for AELP.

FutureDotNow launched a new report in May 2026, demonstrating that embedding essential digital and AI skills into employability programmes can almost double jobseekers’ chances of entering work, while delivering a highly replicable model that strengthens existing provision rather than creating new systems.

The report, ‘How to be work-read in the age of AI: A replicable model for digitally upskilling jobseekers’, sets out findings from a rapid proof of concept delivered in partnership with Cosmic and Accenture, and funded by the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund.

Working with Restart Scheme participants in the South-West, the proof-of-concept explored whether targeted enhancements to current employability programmes could boost job readiness in a labour market where digital capability is now a baseline requirement.