Developing AI skills for a fairer future

With AI rapidly reshaping the future of work, AI in entrepreneurship and AI literacy and EQ are key areas of interest for employers and young people at the start of their careers.

At the EY Foundation, we recognise the link between access to and use of AI and career opportunities:

• 25% of teenagers are thinking of starting their own business in the future. However, individuals from underrepresented backgrounds face additional barriers, spending on average more time and money developing their ideas than their peers. With the UK government recently announcing the development of their AI chatbot to help people set up small businesses, we are also keen to explore whether AI can play a part in breaking down the obstacles to entrepreneurship that many people face.
• With rapid technological change and increased reliance on AI in the workplace, it is important that young people are equipped with the EQ and human-centric skills that are essential to support effective engagement with AI tools.

We’ve started to support young people from low-income backgrounds to prepare for the changes to come and this shift in critical skills for the workplace, through testing new programmes in the form of workshops.

Over the past month, we’ve been running two AI-focused programme pilots with young people:

1. AI & Your Side Hustle – for alumni with a business idea and interest in entrepreneurship, we ran two workshops over a two-week period, which provided an insight into the steps to take to start your own business, basic AI concepts, and how AI can support entrepreneurship.
2. AI Literacy & Emotional Intelligence (EQ) – we delivered this workshop to partner schools across the UK to support students to build their knowledge of technology and AI tools, whilst also developing EQ skills such as self-awareness and self-regulation.

What were the workshop outcomes?

We surveyed 9 participants on our AI & Your Side Hustle pilot and 15 participants on our AI Literacy & EQ pilot. As a result of the workshops:

1. Awareness of concepts increased

AI & Your Side Hustle:

• There was a 22% increase in understanding of AI concepts and how to use them effectively
• 89% of participants said the workshops improved their understanding of the steps needed to set up their business

AI Literacy & EQ:

• There was a 59% increase in understanding of AI bias
• Post programme, 80% of participants could name EQ factors and confidence in working in a team increased by 34%

2. Young people believe that AI is a useful tool

AI & Your Side Hustle:

• 89% of participants said they intend to use the materials they created during the workshops with the support of GenAI

The usefulness of AI was not evaluated in our AI Literacy & EQ workshop survey

3. AI can be viewed by young people as a positive for their future

AI & Your Side Hustle:

• 67% of participants said they intend to set up their business in the next year as a result of the workshops

AI Literacy & EQ:

• There was a 33% increase in how confident participants felt about their future
• There was a 14% increase in participant motivation to work towards their future career goals

What’s next?

The workshops have shown that not only is it possible to equip young people with the vital skills they need for the future workplace, but also that doing so increases their motivation and their confidence in what this evolving landscape means for them. This also echoes findings in our previous research on Social Mobility in the Metaverse.

We will continue to refine and deliver our AI Literacy & EQ training to partner schools across the UK this academic year. We are also looking at ways we can scale our AI & Your Side Hustle pilot to more young people across the UK.

If you’re interested in supporting this work or have ideas on what we should engage with to ensure a more inclusive future of work – get in touch at freya.mumford@eyfoundation.ey.com.