AI Leadership Apprenticeship units

The AI Leadership apprenticeship units are three short, government-funded Level 5 training courses approved by Skills England in April 2026: AU0009 (AI strategy and opportunity), AU0010 (AI adoption, procurement and governance), and AU0011 (AI delivery and organisational transformation).

Each unit is a minimum of 30 hours of guided learning, delivered flexibly over 1 to 16 weeks, with up to £750 of public funding per unit per learner. They’re designed for leaders, not analysts so that’s directors, senior managers and equivalent roles with authority over technology decisions.

Eligible learners must be employed, aged 19 or over, and working in a leadership position with autonomy to deliver technological change and inform investment decisions.

In practice that covers most directors, C-suite roles, heads of function, transformation leads and senior managers with budget responsibility. The learner’s employer must support participation.

Each AI Leadership apprenticeship unit is funded up to £750 of public funding. Organisations putting a single learner through all three units (AU0009, AU0010 and AU0011) can access up to £2,250 in funding for that learner.

Funding flows through the apprenticeship system, administered by the partner training provider that holds the apprenticeship contract. Employers paying the Apprenticeship Levy can typically use it to cover these units; non-levy employers have a co-investment route. Funding eligibility is set and periodically reviewed by Skills England and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The three units cover the AI leadership job at three different stages of organisational maturity:

AU0009 – AI strategy and opportunity: For leaders setting direction in organisations at an early or exploratory stage of AI adoption. Covers strategy, business cases, opportunity assessment and stakeholder buy-in.

AU0010 – AI adoption, procurement and governance: For leaders making decisions about which AI tools to buy and how to govern them. Covers vendor evaluation, procurement, risk, governance frameworks, ethics and compliance.

AU0011 – AI delivery and organisational transformation: For leaders overseeing AI implementation at scale. Covers leading change, workforce impact, ongoing risk monitoring, audit and stakeholder communication.

No. Each unit is a standalone qualification and can be taken independently. Most organisations choose to take all three across one cohort because the topics interlock. It is common to start with the one that matches the learner’s current responsibilities and add the others later.

Blended. Sessions combine instructor-led delivery (online or in-person), structured self-study, employer-set workplace application and an assessment. The 30-hour minimum is the guided learning hours with any workplace application being in addition.

We agree the delivery pattern with each cohort. Common patterns are weekly half-day sessions over 8 weeks, or two intensive days a fortnight apart. Both are inside Skills England’s 1-to-16-week window.

Each unit ends with a skills test delivered by the training provider. The learner must demonstrate they’ve acquired the knowledge and skills set out in the unit specification. Employers then validate the result to confirm the learner has passed.

Employers (or learners) can opt for an extended assessment with independent external validation. For regulated occupations, the extended assessment route is generally recommended.

Magnifica’s AI training is led by Rob Gregory.

The apprenticeship contract itself is held by a partner training provider, who manages the funding, the assessment compliance, and the reporting to Skills England. This is how the funded apprenticeship system works. A registered provider has to hold the contract. The arrangement gives you a builder-led trainer and a compliant funded route in one programme.

The minimum guided learning is 30 hours per unit. Delivered over 1 to 16 weeks depending on the pattern. Typical learner commitment is two to four hours of guided learning per week, plus modest workplace application time on top.
The units are deliberately short and flexible so they fit around a senior workload. We work with the learner’s diary, not against it.

No. They’re apprenticeship units which are short, flexible training courses delivered within the apprenticeship funding system. A full apprenticeship is much longer (typically 12 to 24 months) and leads to an end-point assessment (EPA).

The units are designed for employers who need to upskill people quickly in a specific area without the full programme commitment. Each unit is mapped to relevant occupational standards (AI and Automation Practitioner, Chartered Manager, Senior Leader and others) so they sit cleanly inside the wider apprenticeship framework.

Yes. A private cohort lets us tailor examples and exercises to your sector and tech stack. Minimum cohort size for private delivery is typically 8 learners. We also offer mixed-cohort delivery for organisations with one or two leaders to put through.