Rewire your organisation with the AI Leadership Apprenticeship Units

Let's be honest. Most leaders know AI is a big deal. But knowing that and actually knowing what to do about it? Those are two very different things.

If you've found yourself nodding along in AI briefings, signing off on tools you don't fully understand, or quietly hoping your tech team will "figure it out", you're not alone. But here's the uncomfortable truth: the AI transition isn't something you can hand off. It starts with you.

The AI Conundrum Nobody Talks About

AI has already reached PhD-level capability across medicine, law, finance, and beyond. The technology isn't the problem. The people are,  and that includes leaders.

As Claudia Harris, CEO of Makers, puts it: "Businesses are spending big but fixing nothing." Why? Because the blockers slowing most organisations down aren't technical. They're human:

• Grief. Employees who've spent years building expertise don't want to feel like that knowledge is suddenly obsolete.
• Friction. Changing how you work every single day is hard, even when the upside is obvious.
• Fear. Job security concerns are real, and if leaders don't address them head-on, they fester.

And then there's the leadership blind spot. Most leaders are well-versed in IQ and EQ, but what the AI era demands is something different: LQ, or Learning Intelligence. The ability to adapt as the technology shifts beneath your feet. Without it, even the best-resourced transformation programmes stall.

What the AI Organisation of the Future Actually Looks Like

The companies that will win over the next decade aren't necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated AI, they're the ones where AI becomes a tailwind, not a headwind. Where it's woven into the fabric of how people work at every level.

Think of it in three layers:

1. AI-Fearless Leadership Leaders who don't just tolerate AI but actively champion it. Who identify the highest-value bets, ask uncomfortable questions, and model the behaviour they want to see cascaded through the business.

2. AI-Enabled Technical Teams Engineers and developers who can architect scalable, reliable AI products — not just reach for off-the-shelf tools.

3. AI-Fluent Everyone Else The broader workforce, finance, ops, marketing, HR, who understand what AI can do for their role, automate the low-value tasks, and reimagine their workflows from the ground up.

Getting all three layers working in sync is the real challenge. And it doesn't happen by accident.

So, Where Do You Start?

The UK Government has recently introduced new AI Leadership Apprenticeship Units, and Makers has built a programme specifically designed to help senior leaders make the most of them. The curriculum is structured around three units:

• Imagine — Rethinking your organisation's strategy through an AI-first lens and cascading that vision through your teams.
• Enable — Making smart decisions about tooling, data infrastructure, and what your organisation actually needs to build for the long term.
• Transform — Leading cultural change, upholding ethical standards, and developing the people around you for a future that looks very different from today.

Each unit is 30 hours of coach-led learning at Level 5, practical and applied, not theoretical, with flexible delivery options to fit around your schedule: weekly sessions, blocked learning days, or compressed week-long intensives.

The Numbers That Matter

• Cost: £750 per unit (£2,250 for all three) , fully fundable via the Apprenticeship Levy
• Level: L5, suitable from mid-manager through to senior executive
• Format: In-house cohorts of 20+ leaders, keeping strategic conversations where they belong, inside your organisation
• Assessment: A formal skills test at the end of each unit

For C-Suite executives looking for something faster, Makers also offers a one-day Executive Strategy Offsite, a commercial option designed to get your senior team aligned quickly.

This Is a Leadership Issue, Not a Tech Issue

The organisations pulling ahead right now have one thing in common: leaders who leaned in early, got genuinely curious, and created the conditions for their teams to follow.

Makers has an 84% achievement rate across their programmes (against a 67% government benchmark) and works with over 150 organisations including Google, Amazon, and Deloitte. But what sets them apart isn't just the outcomes, it's the philosophy.

"We don't just teach AI. We teach you how to learn AI , so you're ready when the technology shifts again in three years." Claudia Harris, CEO @ Makers

If you're waiting for a clearer roadmap before you act, that roadmap isn't coming. The leaders who thrive in the AI era will be the ones who helped write it.

Ready to take the next step? Download Makers' white paper You Can't Delegate the AI Transition or get in touch to explore how the AI Leadership Apprenticeship Units could work for your organisation.