Level 4 AI & Automation Practitioner apprenticeship · ST1512

Build real AI capability inside your firm, with your own people, funded.

Not another tool licence, another training day, another deck that gathers dust. Your team learns to build the workflows your business actually runs on, coached by operators who have shipped them, funded by the apprenticeship levy.

Built for mid-market and SME professional firms. Strategy first, then a funded build programme.

£18,000
Funding per person toward training and assessment
Month 1
Your people ship their first real workflow
100%
Government-funded for under-25s at SMEs from August 2026
Funded
By the apprenticeship levy, not another invoice
Why most AI rollouts stall

Strategy without doers stalls. Doers without strategy drift.

Most firms have already tried one of these two routes and seen the result. This programme runs both at once, inside the business, and the funding pays for it.

×

Strategy without doers

A consultancy runs the diagnostic and leaves a 60-slide deck. The board nods. Nobody inside the firm owns the actual work. Three months later the deck is in a drawer and nothing has changed.

Plan delivered. Nobody to execute it.
×

Doers without strategy

The firm buys a generic AI course. People learn prompts and tools and build a few automations in their corners. None of it connects to a plan. Momentum dies after the certificates land.

Skills delivered. Effort scattered.

Your people as the doers, with strategy steering

The strategy names the workflows that matter and the order to fix them. The funded apprenticeship turns your own people into the team who build them, coached by operators who have shipped this work inside real businesses.

Capability that stays in the business.
How it works

One front door, then a funded build programme

Every engagement starts the same way. The strategy decides who builds and in what order. The apprenticeship funds the building.

1

Strategy & readiness assessment

We map your workflows, score the opportunities, and name exactly which people to put on programme. A board-ready roadmap and a costed plan. Paid, and credited back against the places you commit.

2

Cohort & funding plan

We size the cohort from the strategy, confirm your funding route, and where useful source a levy-transfer donor so your training cost lands at or near zero.

3

Build from month one

Your people pick a real workflow in week one and ship it in your actual stack, coached by operators, supported by a 24/7 community. The portfolio writes itself as the work gets done.

4

Transform & measure

Over the programme your team ships real workflows with measured ROI. Optional leadership support keeps the strategy moving at the top of the business.

What it costs

Funded, and we are explicit about it

The £18,000 funding band covers training and end-point assessment. How it is paid depends on your business, and we tell you the exact number before you commit.

Non-levy SME
Near £0 training cost

Under £3m payroll. From August 2026, people under 25 are 100% government-funded. Those 25 and over are 95% funded, with a small co-investment of around £900 across the whole programme, or zero if we place a levy-transfer donor. New 16 to 24 starts can attract a £2,000 incentive from October 2026.

Levy payer
Paid from your levy pot

Over £3m payroll. The £18,000 is drawn from the digital levy account your business already funds, across the programme, with no additional training cost to enrol.

Not funded by the levy: the strategy assessment, any leadership transformation support, salaries and software licences. Said plainly, on the first call.

Why this model works

Four things that separate this from generic AI delivery

01

Built for your sector, not generic AI

Every workflow is built around how your business actually runs, not around a generic AI curriculum. The programme flexes to your sector, your stack and your priorities.

02

Real work from month one

No curriculum-first theory. Your people pick a real workflow in week one and ship it in your actual operating stack, with an operator alongside them. The qualification evidence writes itself as the work gets done.

03

Tech-agnostic, on the tools you already pay for

We build around how your business runs, not around a single CRM or a single AI tool. Whatever you already pay for, we build with. The tool can be swapped later without losing the work.

04

A workflow library that compounds

Every cohort adds shipped, documented workflows to a shared library. Your business benefits from work done across the network, reusable from day one.

Where this comes from

An operator's bench, not a lecturer's slide deck.

The workflows on this page are not a syllabus. They are the day job, written down. The programme is founded and led by Alex Lockey, who runs four lean businesses on the back of this exact work, and the coaching bench is operators cut from the same cloth, chosen on what they have actually shipped.

Behind the programme, a registered training provider carries the funding contract and the regulated end-point assessment, so what your people earn is a full Level 4 qualification. To you it is one programme and one point of contact.

4
businesses run by one operator on these workflows
10+
years building and running real businesses
Level 4
regulated qualification, Ofqual assured
Month 1
first real workflow shipped
Who this is for

Firms ready to build capability, not just talk about it

Right for you if

  • You run a mid-market or SME professional firm
  • Owner-operated or founder-led, with a real operating model
  • You have bought AI tools your team is not operationalising
  • At least one internal champion to build alongside the operator
  • You can commit time for the strategy assessment

Probably not if

  • ×You want a strategy deck and no implementation
  • ×You want a report handed over and nobody to own it
  • ×You are not yet ready to commit to real change
  • ×You need awareness training rather than implementation
  • ×You want a one-off tool demo
Common questions

What leaders ask before the first call

What if we are not technical?

That is exactly who this is for. Our clients are managing partners, practice heads and founders, not developers. The programme handles the technical craft and your people learn it on real work.

Can we put existing staff on it, or does it have to be new hires?

Existing staff, in most cases. The standard is written for people whose roles are being reshaped by AI and automation, provided it is genuine new learning. Most first cohorts are existing employees.

We do not have time for people to be on a course.

The learning time is not time away from the job. It is your people solving your real problems, coached by an operator, and the solutions stay in the business. The first one ships in month one.

How does the strategy assessment work, and what does it cost?

A focused, paid engagement that maps how you run, names the workflows that matter, sizes the cohort and tests funding eligibility. The fee is credited back against the apprenticeship places you commit to, so the more of your team you develop, the more it pays for itself.

Is it really funded?

Yes. The £18,000 per person is covered by the apprenticeship levy or government funding. For under-25s at SMEs it is fully funded from August 2026; for others it is near zero or zero with a levy-transfer donor we can source. We tell you the exact number on the readout.

Start with the strategy. The roadmap tells you the rest.

A focused conversation about where AI will move your numbers, which of your people should build it, and what it will actually cost. No deck, no pressure.

See how we can work together