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Multiverse has launched a new AI and data training programme with Paragon, one of the UK’s biggest business service companies, designed to improve efficiency and strengthen growth opportunities across the business. 

The programme will train employees across 15 different departments in data and AI capabilities, embedding practical skills directly into daily workflows to streamline manual processes and increase productivity. By improving internal processes, Paragon's teams will be better equipped to enhance the services they deliver for clients.

The Academy also deepens the partnership between Multiverse and Paragon by creating new opportunities to enhance training capabilities, with Paragon's clients and their evolving needs at the centre.

David Phillips, COO at Paragon’s Outsourced Services division, said: “We’re now operating in an environment where efficiency and the ability to make faster, better-informed decisions have never been more important. At Paragon, we know that embracing technology, and giving our people the skills to use it, is crucial to meet this need. Our partnership with Multiverse is critical to this mission, helping us to enact our own digital growth strategy and unlock innovation that can improve the customer journeys for our clients across multiple industries.”

The programme is structured to support learners with varying digital skill levels, from technical beginners to established practitioners. By embedding training directly into daily workflows, newly acquired skills are applied immediately to real operational challenges, accelerating Paragon's digital transformation from the inside out. The result is a workforce where everyone, at every level of the business, is empowered to contribute directly to the company's innovation-led transformation strategy and long-term growth ambitions.

Jay Richman, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Multiverse, said: “Paragon sits at the centre of complex, high-volume business services, and the opportunity to apply AI and data skills to those workflows is enormous. That’s what we’re doing together: giving their people practical capabilities applied to real operational challenges, so they can streamline how work gets done, make faster decisions, and deliver stronger outcomes for their clients."

Multiverse, the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption, today announced the opening of a new technology hub in Edinburgh. Following its recent $70m funding round, the hub marks an expansion of Multiverse's engineering footprint, placing an additional centre of technical excellence outside of London. Former Amazon leader Colin Mackenzie has been appointed as the company’s first VP AI Engineering to lead it, and will focus on developing agentic products.

Mackenzie brings more than a decade of engineering leadership experience to the role, most recently spending six years at Amazon. For the last three years he has built the generative AI platform that powers Amazon’s AI advertising products. Prior to this he held senior engineering roles at Virgin Money and Clydesdale Bank, saw a startup through to a successful exit, and founded his own business. Throughout his career he has had a focus on developing high-performing, high-agency teams that innovate around the latest technologies. He will oversee the Edinburgh hub's growth and bring his expertise to Multiverse’s AI talent development programme.

As part of its broader expansion, Multiverse will create 200 jobs in the next year across the new office and its London HQ, while continuing to grow revenue per employee. This will fuel its mission to translate AI’s potential into practical outcomes for employers across the UK and Europe. 

Colin Mackenzie, VP AI Engineering, Multiverse, said: "AI is changing how people work faster than they can retrain for it, and without equitable access to AI skills a lot of people get displaced and left behind. We need to innovate at pace to solve this problem, and thankfully Scotland has the world-class AI talent required to help us do it. When we get it right, we change lives at a national scale."

For incoming and existing tech talent, Multiverse is also launching an internal upskilling model, pairing high-agency junior AI engineers with senior engineering leaders. This approach treats mentorship as a core engineering function, accelerating the development of practical AI skills through on-the-job learning alongside experienced practitioners. 

Paired with delivering its AI product and data engineering apprenticeships, this reinforces the company’s commitment to equipping the whole workforce to win in the AI era, from frontline workers to frontend engineers.

Jay Richman, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Multiverse, said: "We're building the AI adoption layer for UK and European employers. That requires depth in the product, and in the team building it. The market problem is significant: AI capability is advancing faster than workforces can absorb it, and employers are under real pressure to close that gap. Edinburgh gives us access to additional world-class engineering talent, Colin brings the track record to lead it, and our model of pairing high-agency junior engineers with senior practitioners means we're building capability as well as headcount."

The announcements come as governments and employers intensify their focus on AI adoption as a driver of productivity and economic growth. Multiverse's model, combining employer partnerships with structured, outcome-focused learning, is directly aligned with that agenda.

Across the UK economy, businesses, public sector organisations and universities are driving ahead with AI adoption, supported by the skills delivered through Multiverse programmes. In the past six months, employers like BT, Pan Macmillan, Addison Lee, Capita, Evri and Keltbray have launched significant upskilling efforts, rolling out hundreds of AI, data and engineering apprenticeships between them.

Multiverse, Europe’s only EdTech unicorn, announced a partnership with Synthesia, the world’s leading AI video communications platform.

Under the partnership, Synthesia’s AI video platform will be formally integrated into Multiverse’s AI Learner Toolkit - a suite of tools its learners can explore to scope, build and deliver AI projects inside their organisations. Learners across Multiverse’s programmes will now have additional resources and guidance to implement Synthesia as a tool to design and deploy AI video solutions for their employers, alongside a range of other no-code, low-code and generative AI tools.

Learners have already begun applying Synthesia independently to drive real business impact across industries:

• Two local government learners deployed Synthesia to meet high-demand content needs - one halving production time entirely, another creating accessibility-compliant resident communications that shifted service delivery from assisted to digital channels
• A customer operations professional at an insurance company redesigned training for vulnerable customers, replacing manual live delivery with standardised AI-generated video modules - improving consistency, reducing workload and strengthening auditability
• A programme director at an international real estate company is using Synthesia to produce multilingual training materials at scale, replacing text-based content with engaging video, without the time and cost of traditional filming and voiceovers

The partnership formalises an existing relationship. Synthesia is already embedded in Multiverse’s own learning content, used to produce AI-powered video at scale across its programmes. This capability allows Multiverse to deliver dynamic, multimodal content that can be updated in real time, keeping pace with rapid technological advances. By blending this cutting-edge AI with its signature human coaching, Multiverse creates an AI-powered, human-led learning experience.

The announcement was first made at Synthesia Live London, where Multiverse CEO Euan Blair joined Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli for a fireside conversation on AI adoption and the future of workforce transformation.

Euan Blair, Founder and CEO of Multiverse, said: “The true power of AI occurs when brilliant tech meets human capability. Together with Synthesia, we are turning that vision into reality, putting world-class video AI straight into the hands of our learners to become creators and innovators. They are finding the real-world use cases that improve productivity and create tangible outcomes. And this is how widespread AI adoption actually happens.”

Victor Riparbelli, Co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, said: “We’re at a rare inflection point: AI is becoming genuinely capable, and at the same time, upskilling and reskilling workforces is now a board-level priority. The question isn’t whether organisations need to transform - it’s how fast they can build the human capability to make it real. Synthesia and Multiverse sit at exactly that intersection. Embedding Synthesia into Multiverse’s programmes means tens of thousands of learners will learn to create, communicate and share knowledge, enhanced by AI.”

The partnership reflects a shared conviction that AI can supercharge what humans are able to achieve. With more than 30,000 learners across the UK, Multiverse works with employers across financial services, public services, professional services and beyond to equip workforces with the practical AI capability needed to compete. Synthesia’s platform is used by more than 65,000 businesses globally, including 90% of the Fortune 100.

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RSK has launched a strategic partnership with upskilling platform Multiverse to train an initial cohort of 33 employees in advanced AI applications. The partnership is designed to support RSK’s ongoing emphasis on innovation and technological advancement.

With more than 200 businesses, RSK Group will benefit from AI fluency across core functions and divisional teams. By empowering staff to embed advanced AI capability to support their work, teams can shift their focus to the strategic, high-value work that drives revenue.

Gary Eimerman, Chief Learning Officer at Multiverse, said: "We’re proud to partner with RSK, turning AI literacy into a shared language across its businesses. This mastery of AI will serve as a force multiplier, allowing teams to unlock hidden efficiencies and scale their impact. Together, we’re building a future-proof foundation that supports RSK as the group continues to find solutions to complex environmental challenges."

Dr. Ian Goodacre, Group Divisional and Board Director at RSK, said: “At RSK, our strength lies in our vast, multi-disciplinary expertise. This partnership with Multiverse is about empowering our people to harness that collective intelligence. AI support will allow our teams to focus on the high-value, creative problem-solving that helps us achieve efficiencies, stay competitive and continue to deliver outstanding results for our clients."

The 33 learners are enrolled across three programmes with Multiverse’s AI portfolio:

• AI Strategy and Leadership, Level 5: Designed for leaders to align AI initiatives with specific business areas and broader strategic goals.
• AI for Business Value, Level 4: Empowers teams to identify and implement tailored AI solutions that drive measurable business impact, focusing on process optimisation.
• AI-Powered Productivity, Level 3: Boosts team productivity by integrating GenAI tools into daily tasks to automate repetitive workflows and drive measurable efficiencies.

This partnership is part of an important step in RSK’s digital transformation. In fostering a culture of mastery and technological confidence, RSK is positioning its team to navigate the accelerating pace of the global working world and solve complex client problems with innovative, bold solutions.

LONDON – 15th May, 2026 – Multiverse, the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption, today announced it has raised $70 million in primary funding to drive growth across Europe. The funding was led by Schroders Capital, with participation from existing investors including General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, D1 Capital Partners, Index Ventures, Bond, and StepStone Group. 

The investment will accelerate Multiverse's expansion across Europe, with the goal of ensuring that AI benefits the workforce, rather than displacing it. It lands amid accelerating company growth driven by UK enterprise adoption, and strategic acquisitions. Multiverse completed the acquisition of Berlin-based data and AI training company StackFuel in January 2026. 

The $2.1bn valuation, a $400m increase on the last funding round, reflects a company in its strongest position yet: revenue grew 50% yoy, and increased at an accelerating rate for the third consecutive year. For the first time, Multiverse had a cash-positive quarter from January to March 2026. Alongside this raise, all employees regardless of seniority have been offered equity and a long term stake in the company as a result of the funding round.

Defining a new category: the AI adoption layer 

Businesses and governments across the UK and Europe are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, with AI spend doubling since last year according to BCG’s 2026 AI Radar. Yet the much promised productivity gains remain elusive. The missing ingredient is not more technology tools, it is a skilled workforce capable of deploying them. Corporate AI trailblazers in the BCG report invest twice as much in upskilling their workforce as AI followers. 

Multiverse was built to ensure workers don’t get left behind by the rapid pace of technology. Today that means closing the gap between workers and tech, in effect acting as the AI adoption layer of the technology stack. Its platform diagnoses precise skills gaps, matching corporate goals against workforce capability to give leaders a holistic view and detailed recommendations for upskilling. Multiverse then equips workers at every level with the AI, data and digital skills to translate technology investment into measurable outcomes. To date, the company delivered more than £2 billion in verified ROI for over 1,000 employers, including critical national security with Babcock and household names like The AA, Capita and Addison Lee.

With 50% revenue growth last year, driven by new customers and continued demand from existing customers the strategic investment is intended to fuel further expansion. The last year has seen an increasing focus on strategic alliances, with tech platforms including Microsoft, Palantir, and Databricks partnering with Multiverse. Atlas, its AI coaching platform, tripled daily active users in the last year.   

"There are companies who desperately need the benefits AI can bring. There are AI companies. What has been missing is the layer that bridges the two," said Euan Blair, CEO and Founder of Multiverse. "This investment marks the moment Multiverse defines that category, and takes it across Europe. Getting outcomes from AI and unlocking productivity is not just a technology problem. It is a people problem. We exist to solve it."

Multiverse's thesis, that AI's greatest value lies in expanding human capability, not replacing it, is drawn from extensive employer experience. CEOs surveyed by Multiverse cited skills gaps as the second biggest barrier to AI adoption, ahead of regulation and data quality.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “We want Britain to achieve the fastest rate of AI adoption of any country in the G7 - the productivity dividend we can get from AI will grow businesses of all shapes and sizes in the UK and ensure they stay competitive.”

“Multiverse is a fantastic example of a British company helping turn that ambition into reality. This investment will support its expansion across Europe, strengthening a UK firm that is competing globally and equipping people with the skills to make AI work in practice.”

Michael Mclean, Head of Private Equity Technology Investments, Schroders Capital, said: “The evolution of AI is creating transformative opportunities to drive productivity and growth across global economies,” “Multiverse is a leader in enabling this shift, helping organisations capitalise on these tailwinds. With growing momentum across Europe, Multiverse puts the focus on AI adoption, enabling employers to upskill their workforces and translate technology investment into tangible outcomes.

"High-quality businesses with the potential for transformative, sustainable growth and value creation are key fundamentals we look for. We're therefore delighted to have led this significant fundraise as Multiverse further accelerates its growth journey."

Growth has been driven in large part by deepening business with existing customers. 

Lynsey Valentine, Strategy Director at Babcock, said: “Multiverse has helped us tackle a growing complexity and volume of data by equipping our people with practical, real‑world data skills. Our teams are already applying what they’ve learned to automate processes, unlock insight, and drive meaningful improvements well before graduation.”

Lisa Pinfield, Group Director of Performance & Development at Capita, said: “At Capita, we chose Multiverse because they enabled us to build critical AI and data capability at scale, in a way that is practical, inclusive and closely aligned to real business needs. The partnership has helped us turn AI ambition into real impact, equipping colleagues with future‑critical skills while strengthening performance and decision‑making across the organisation.”

Patrick Gallagher, CEO at Addison Lee, said: "We are delighted with the impact of our partnership with Multiverse, which plays a vital role in Addison Lee’s ongoing digital transformation. It has been incredibly rewarding to see our colleagues at every level of the business respond with such resounding positivity toward this opportunity to learn and progress. As we navigate an increasingly complex and rapidly changing landscape, this collaboration ensures our workforce remains equipped with the essential skills to drive our business forward."

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Staffordshire Police is teaming up with AI upskilling platform Multiverse to pilot a new apprenticeship scheme designed to upskill staff on AI. A total of 15 team members from across the organisation will learn how to use AI to enhance their processes and increase efficiency.

Individuals in the cohort were selected to participate based on the nature of their current role and responsibilities in force. The pilot is aimed at developing their understanding of the technology and harnessing data to strengthen existing ways of working.

John Bowler, Director of Digital, Data and Technology at Staffordshire Police, said: “From creating simple AI tools to support everyday tasks such as drafting and responding to emails, to helping teams deliver complex processes more effectively, this will be another practical tool in the toolbox for our people – both now and moving forward.

“By developing these skills in a safe and structured way, we can share knowledge and build confidence across the force, strengthening our data and digital capability and helping to build a workforce that is ready for the future.”

Rebecca Crellin, Apprentice Manager at Staffordshire Police, said: “This is an incredible opportunity for those involved in the trial to develop their skills and learn how best to use AI effectively. We had significant interest in the trial and hope that once this latest cohort completes their qualifications, there may be scope for further opportunities in the future.”

Katie Russell, Head of Learning and Organisational Development at Staffordshire Police, added: “This is an exciting opportunity for us as an organisation to further learn how best to harness AI to enhance efficiency and improve processes while developing our understanding of this ever-advancing technology.

“I am pleased we have been able to partner with Multiverse on this pilot and look forward to seeing the impact of the learning in the confidence of our learners and in improvements within our organisation.”

Gary Eimerman, Chief Learning Officer at Multiverse, said: “For public services like policing, the opportunity to use AI to automate administrative burdens and unlock deeper insights from data is transformative. By equipping these 15 pioneers with the ability to build and deploy AI tools responsibly, we are ensuring the force remains agile and effective in a digital-first world. We are proud to support the Staffordshire Police in leading the way for vocational, applied learning in this critical field.”

Multiverse is the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption, which delivers personalised, on-the-job learning. Multiverse has trained more than 30,000 apprentices in AI, data and digital skills since 2016. 

Over 1,500 companies work with Multiverse to deliver a new kind of learning that’s transforming the workforce at scale. Programmes are targeted at people of any age or career stage.

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Europcar Mobility Group UK (Europcar), the global mobility player, is driving forward responsible digital and AI adoption through an AI Academy delivered by upskilling platform Multiverse. 

Europcar learners on the programme have already unlocked significant gains in productivity and innovation by embedding tools like Gemini into operational workflows. This has modernised reporting and enabled the team to map order processing more effectively.

Abigail Sly, Pricing Analyst at Europcar, is one individual who has seen benefits from the investment in training, harnessing AI to build a tool to validate rental vehicle details (SIPPs) used for customer reservations. This tool is projected to save 234 hours per year on a process that was previously completed manually. Another learner has improved the speed and accuracy of financial reporting through AI-driven analysis, helping the company to make informed decisions and ensuring customer needs are met effectively.

Discussing her experience with the Multiverse training programme, Abigail said: “Working with the Multiverse team through our AI Academy has been incredibly useful to build critical digital skills that we can apply across many different areas of our work. I’m already putting these skills to the test by improving our internal processes and can’t wait to see how our wider teams grow their digital know-how in other workstreams.” 

Mark Newberry, Transformation & Strategy Director (UK & Ireland) at Europcar added: “At Europcar, we’re committed to ensuring our customers get from A to B safely and efficiently. And we are determined to embrace future-focused technologies and harness AI capabilities that can be scaled across our business to help us fulfil this commitment. The partnership with Multiverse is playing a critical role in ensuring we can maximise the advantages of AI as effectively and efficiently as possible.”

The partnership has seen Europcar employees from the company’s administration, procurement, and operations teams enrolled on the training programme to help standardise AI use across the business and empower staff with the skills to streamline day-to-day tasks through AI. 

Gary Eimerman, Chief Learning Officer at Multiverse said: “"With over 75 years of experience in the motoring industry, Europcar is a business that understands the value of futureproofing employee skills to grow sustainably within a changing market. Our partnership marks the next step in this digital evolution. The time saved and processes transformed by these learners will ultimately be of direct benefit to Europcar's customers.”

Multiverse is the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption, which delivers personalised, on-the-job learning. Multiverse has trained more than 340,000 apprentices in AI, data and digital skills since 2016.

Over 1,500 companies work with Multiverse to deliver a new kind of learning that’s transforming the workforce at scale. Programmes are targeted at people of any age or career stage

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Following successful pilot programmes that delivered measurable improvements across its operations, the University of Southampton is expanding its digital training initiative to a wider cohort of staff. The AI and Data apprenticeships programme with Multiverse has welcomed an additional 150 colleagues, marking the university’s largest cohort yet.

Initial participants were quick to apply their new skills and drive tangible business impact, with one learner mitigating room inspection failures through clearer data and the implementation of a new process tracker. Other learners made strides in reducing admin bottlenecks, with one significantly cutting down reporting time and another developing a Power BI dashboard which led to a major reduction in issues with student engagement monitoring.

Building on this success, the University has recently extended the programmes to a new cohort of staff, reflecting the demand for digital skills across the organisation and the value demonstrated by earlier cohorts in increasing accuracy and reducing the burden of manual activities.

Staff have enrolled into one of four Multiverse courses, including AI-centric programmes Level 3 AI-Powered Productivity and Level 4 AI for Business Value. These courses will improve confidence in ethical and effective AI tool adoption, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, helping teams to integrate these tools into tasks across their workflows.

The Level 3 Data & Insights for Business Decisions and Level 4 Data Fellowship programmes will improve data handling and automation in Excel, PowerBI and Tableau, and train staff in predictive and statistical modelling to tackle hands-on projects and handle real operational challenges effectively. 

Andrew Atherton, VP International and Engagement and Digital Strategy Sponsor at the University of Southampton, said: “Multiverse’s training programmes have shown what’s possible when staff are given the tools and confidence to apply digital thinking to their work. Having secured significant results already, we’re excited to equip even more of our people with robust skills in AI and data, helping us to deliver even better services for students and increase job satisfaction for employees.” 

Gary Eimerman, Chief Learning Officer at Multiverse said: “It’s fantastic to see the impact that Multiverse training has already had on the University of Southampton, whether it’s fewer room inspection failures or reduced reporting time. Expanding the training will give more staff the opportunity to innovate in their roles, creating a shared digital culture across the University.” 

Multiverse is the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption, which delivers personalised, on-the-job learning. Multiverse has trained more than 20,000 apprentices in AI, data and digital skills since 2016.

Over 1,500 companies work with Multiverse to deliver a new kind of learning that’s transforming the workforce at scale. Programmes are targeted at people of any age or career stage.

Age UK, the leading charity for older people, is partnering with tech upskilling platform Multiverse to launch an AI and Data Academy. The initiative will equip 60 team members with critical digital skills, transforming how the Charity supports the millions of older people currently facing poverty and isolation.

As the UK’s ageing population continues to grow, the demand for Age UK’s services has never been higher. Nearly 2 million older people are currently living in poverty, often hidden from traditional support networks. This partnership moves beyond traditional charity operations, using technology as a force multiplier to reach more vulnerable people with its services.

The training initiative will empower the organisation to modernise their processes, secure data-led insights and adopt new technology. By strengthening digital skills across its teams, Age UK can reduce delays in live fundraising projects, identify future fundraising opportunities, and streamline critical tasks such as writing funding bids, which can take weeks of employee time to complete manually.

Donna Marshall, Chief People Officer at Age UK, said: “Our people are deeply committed to the meaningful work that they do, and this partnership with Multiverse is a significant investment in their growth and the future of the Charity. By launching this AI and Data Academy, we are empowering our team to work more effectively, so they’re able to focus on what truly matters.”

James Radford, Strategy and Transformation Director at Age UK, said: “To address the complex challenges of poverty and isolation in an ageing population, we must be as agile and data-informed as possible. That means developing data and AI capabilities across our teams to unlock insights that allow us to scale our impact and target our resources to reach more people that need our support. The Digital Academy is therefore a key part of our transformation strategy.”

Staff will be enrolled across five Multiverse training programmes, including the Level 3 programmes Data for Insights and Business Decisions and AI-Powered Productivity, which introduce learners to data and AI platforms, such as Microsoft Copilot and Power BI.

The Level 4 Data Fellowship delivers training in programming, data modelling and analysis skills, while the Level 4-6 Advanced Data Fellowship will deepen technical expertise in data storage, machine learning and data flow automation. 

Gary Eimerman, Chief Learning Officer at Multiverse said: “Charities like Age UK deliver critical support to those in need, and as the need for charity support grows, so do the demands on those delivering these services. To help meet these demands, Age UK is leading the way by removing digital barriers, streamlining processes and unlocking valuable time through data insights and responsible AI uses.”

Multiverse is the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption, which delivers personalised, on-the-job learning. Multiverse has trained more than 20,000 apprentices in AI, data and digital skills since 2016.

Over 1,500 companies work with Multiverse to deliver a new kind of learning that’s transforming the workforce at scale. Programmes are targeted at people of any age or career stage.

Before Multiverse, what was the alternative for a 42-year-old whose role is being automated? An evening course? A YouTube tutorial? In too many cases, the answer was nothing at all.

I started Multiverse nearly ten years ago because I saw an acute problem: a huge gulf between the skills workers had and the skills the economy needed. Ten years on, that problem has got harder. Employer investment in training has fallen by nearly £10 billion in real terms. Hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the NHS, social work and teaching go unfilled. More than a quarter of all employer vacancies are skills-related. And now we face something genuinely existential: AI-driven displacement that will impact every worker, in every sector.

The OBR's March 2026 forecast shows a £90 billion swing in public borrowing depending on whether productivity improves - and names AI adoption as a key factor. UK output per person has flatlined since 2019. The cost of inaction is not abstract.

Last year, Multiverse accounted for more than half of all growth in apprenticeship starts across the entire system. That growth brings responsibility, and accountability where we fall short. So let me be direct about both.

On completion rates: ours are too low, and I want them higher. Our last published QAR (the government gathered metric for completion) sits at 52.6%. Our highest-level programmes complete at c.70%, our software developer programmes complete above 80%, and our data degree apprenticeship has topped the National Student Survey for satisfaction two years running. The gap elsewhere reflects deliberate choices that I stand behind, with caveats.

For our AI programmes, we chose an inclusive approach to enrolment. Employers asked us to reach frontline workers - the people who typically get passed over for formal training. The result is a 50/50 gender split on our two biggest AI programmes and genuine reach across the country. That approach comes with a real tradeoff on completion, but even among those who withdraw, 70% have already generated measurable value for their employer. One of our NHS apprentices reduced missed appointments in a hospital department by 30%. A pay rise or promotion during or after the programme is the majority outcome for our learners.

We also hit friction because the regulated apprenticeship system hadn't caught up with AI. The release of the first general purpose AI apprenticeship is now imminent; but nearly four years after ChatGPT launched. The right answer was never to simply ignore AI from an apprenticeship perspective - but we paid a price in our QARs for innovating ahead of the programmatic standards available. We're working to close that gap.

On whether we take more than we give: Multiverse has put $500 million of investment capital into the skills system — the largest non-governmental investment in the skills system anywhere in the world. Our learners have driven more than £2 billion in measurable ROI for their employers. Our AI coach, Atlas, now handles 15 million queries with a 98% satisfaction rate. Since 2020, we've contributed £102 million in Income Tax and National Insurance through our employee payroll alone.

And we train apprentices aged 16 to 70. That's not a mission drift — it's the most urgent expression of our mission. The cost of a Multiverse programme is a fraction of the cost of redundancy, rehiring, and starting again from scratch. Apprenticeships for a 45-year-old facing automation and apprenticeships for an 18-year-old who can't afford university are both responses to the same broken system. We shouldn’t pit them against each other; the country needs more of both.

On growing too fast: I accept that growth creates strain, and that in regulated markets innovation creates friction. We haven't always managed that strain as well as we should. We weren't prioritising formal careers advice for experienced workers, as an example - assuming they wouldn't want it from us. The regulator sees it differently, and we're now embedding it across all programmes. Where we've created friction, we'll own it and adapt.

But the apprenticeship system's core problem is not that providers have grown too fast. It's that the system hasn't grown at all. The NHS starts c.20,000 apprentices in a workforce of 1.4 million. Its own Long Term Workforce Plan targets 22% of clinical training through apprenticeship routes by 2031. It’s only 7% today. Funds available for apprenticeships expire unused every year. Total starts remain below pre-levy levels. We employ a sales team that is unashamedly relentless in trying to persuade every employer who will listen that educating their workforce is a good thing, and that it’s a worthwhile investment to make - both for them and for their workers.

In that context, growing too fast is not the right criticism. The right question is: why isn't everyone growing faster?

We are reinvesting everything we earn into building a reskilling infrastructure that didn't exist before. We are not going to stop. There is an alarming world where workers facing automation have nowhere to turn. They deserve a pathway, and we're proof that when you build one, people will take it. The skills gap is not inevitable. The question is whether we'll move fast enough, and boldly enough, to close it. And ten years on, there’s still a lot more for us to do.

— Euan Blair

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