Listen to this story Members can listen to an AI-generated audio version of this article. 1.0x Audio narration uses an AI-generated voice. 0:00 0:00 Become a member to listen to this article Subscribe Pat McFadden’s expert adviser on skills has had his role extended to the end of the year, with a widened remit now covering artificial intelligence, apprenticeships and reducing NEETs. Praful Nargund’s appointment, which reports directly to the secretary of state for work and pensions, began in January as a six-month post due to end this month. The unpaid role will now run until the end of December, with an increased minimum commitment in the department increased from 2 to 2.5 days a week. Nargund announced the extension himself on social media yesterday alongside an amended press release from January containing a rewritten remit and job description. He confirmed he would continue alongside his role as director of the think tank The Good Growth Foundation. The role description initially led on supporting the transfer of adult skills policy from the Department for Education to the Department for Work and Pensions. It now includes advising on the secretary of state’s AI priorities by “working with officials to apply technology to labour market interventions and build the department’s long-term capacity to respond to the impact of artificial intelligence on work and employment”. It also now includes supporting the government’s target of 50,000 additional youth apprenticeships and the department’s wider agenda to cut the number of young people not in education, employment and training. Nargund was appointed by McFadden as a direct ministerial appointment, a method that doesn’t require open recruitment. Unlike special advisers, direct appointees are not civil servants and do not hold any executive authority. He was Labour’s parliamentary candidate in the Islington North constituency in the 2024 general election, standing against the party’s former leader, Jeremy Corbyn. He served as a governor at Capital City College and was a member of Labour’s council of skills advisers. McFadden spoke at a Good Growth Foundation event last week to float a new bursary aimed at the apprenticeship “benefits penalty”.