Disconnected: The AI Skills Demand vs. Digital Poverty Divide | FE Soundbite 794

April 26, 2025

Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 794: 26th April 2025 | Disconnected: The AI Skills Demand vs. Digital Poverty Divide. Whilst Coursera has seen an 866% growth in demand for GenAI courses, we still have 7.5 Million adults (18% of UK adults) who, lack the basic digital skills required for work. How do we bridge this skills gap to meet demand?

This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here is a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles from sector influencers and cool thinkers across FE and Skills this week on FE News.

Gavin’s Reflective Perspective

So I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week. I hope you had a great Easter break.

AI Literacy

I really enjoyed Nikolaz Foucaud's article on AI Literacy this week. Nikolaz unpacks two of Coursera's recent reports and research. Coursera's Job Skills Report 2025 shows a 866% spike in demand for courses in Generative AI, with a 1,600% surge among those not currently employed! In one year Coursera had 400 new courses on the topic of GenAI. So this shows the learner driven demand, but how do you cut through the noise and not just offer AI, GenAI and Agentic AI courses, but continual professional development?

AI Skills Gender Divide

Alarmingly Nikolaz highlights that just 31% the learners interested in AI and GenAI courses were women. This figure closely aligns with the global average of 32%, underscoring a persistent gender disparity within one of the fastest-growing areas of technology. This is kind of alarming!

Barriers to Digital and Entry Levels of Learning

Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance wrote a really interesting piece that dove tails into Nikolaz's article on the growth of GenAI and skills gaps. Elizabeth wrote a piece on Curriculum and Assessment Review: The System is Not Working Well for All, highlighting that 7.5 million people, 18% of UK adults, lack the basic digital skills required for work. Couple this with younger learners and pupils from low-income households or with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), digital education is often inconsistent, under-resourced, or entirely absent. The very learners who stand to gain the most are being left furthest behind.

Digital Poverty Alliance: By 14 years old, 94% of girls and 79% of boys no longer study Computing

Elizabeth highlights that in schools there is a massive shift away from Computing. By age 14, 94% of girls and 79% of boys no longer study Computing at GCSE levels. She makes a really good point about the need to address this for the skills needed for the future of work and education! Alarmingly, Elizabeth highlights that only 17% of teachers have received formal training in Digital Skills! So something needs to fundamentally shift!

So there is growth and mass interest in one major growth area in emerging AI (which is well established, but very early in development), but with a massive entry level Digital training need, access to digital and connectivity, physical kit and then curriculum design.

There are some obvious policy pipeline shifts needed to match the skills demands for jobs and education in the future!