The government has opened the National School of Government and Public Services’ first residential campus at York. Cabinet Office Minister Mark Ferguson launched the campus on 27 October 2026, with regional hubs planned across the country.
The UK previously had a National School of Government. Its return puts AI skills into the core training offer for civil servants.
What’s on offer
According to the Cabinet Office, every civil servant gets access to Universal Skills training from day one. Digital skills and AI sit alongside leadership and management.
The training covers practical work on reducing clerical workload at the frontline. There are also cloud engineering courses for people building and deploying technology across government.
The school has partnered with the civil service’s annual One Big Thing learning initiative. This year’s theme is AI in Action.
Resultsense, reporting on coverage by Global Government Forum, says the school will also oversee the Fast Stream graduate scheme and civil service apprenticeships. It reports plans for a centre for evidence to test which training works.
Part of the government’s stated aim is cost: bringing more training in-house is intended to reduce spending on external providers over time.
What schools, trusts and colleges can borrow
The announcement mentions AI tutoring tools in schools. Its staff training offer is for the civil service. For a school or trust, the useful question is how to organise its own training.
AI sits in the core offer. If your CPD plan consists of one optional twilight session, check who can actually attend. The office colleague answering the phones at that time might be the person who’d get the most out of it.
Different jobs need different practice. A teaching assistant using Copilot Chat to draft a letter needs to know what information they can enter and how to check the result. A network manager configuring data loss prevention needs a different session.
You can check what changes after the training. Six weeks after a session, ask a colleague to show you one task they now do differently. Give them the chance to show you where the suggested method didn’t work, too.
Apprenticeships are part of the picture
The reported link to civil service apprenticeships gives education teams another route to consider. An apprentice can apply a new skill to their own work and discuss the result with a coach.
For example, someone adapting a staff communication could bring the first draft and the version they actually sent. The differences give the coach something specific to ask about, including where professional judgement changed the wording.
What to do next
- Check whether everyone who needs a grounding in AI can get one through your CPD plan.
- Map the tasks staff actually do before deciding who needs which training.
- Pick one example of changed practice and revisit it a term after the session.
- If you’re looking at apprenticeships, ask providers how learners apply AI skills in their own role.
When your next training session ends, what could a colleague bring back a term later to show that it helped?