Despite the global technology market’s sluggish recovery following widespread layoffs, recent data shows bright spots in the UK tech market that educators can help their students take advantage of. But that is only true if they successfully pivot to new growth areas.
AI rewriting roles
AI has transformed tech jobs in just two years, changing demands on both bootcamps and computer science degrees.
Roles such as prompt engineer, highly sought after in 2022, are almost nonexistent today. Conversely solutions architects, once considered “tech-adjacent”, now command a higher salary than full-stack developers.
Tech educators are struggling to keep pace. Computer science degrees still emphasise programming theory fundamentals, while coding bootcamps that focus on drilling static languages are closing down.
Both approaches risk irrelevance in a market where skill demands are evolving rapidly.
AI trainer, AI data specialist, and AI security specialist are now the top roles companies plan to add in 2025, according to Microsoft’s survey of 31,000 employers.
Only the tech sector is experiencing such relentless, AI-driven turnover in required skills. AI-related roles are expanding 3.6 times faster than the average UK job, with skill requirements evolving 25 per cent faster than other sectors.
Today’s skills are yesterday’s news, meaning an educational shift to instilling students with the capacity to teach themselves new frameworks – according to market demands – is now more valuable to students than teaching transient skill sets.
Surging salaries
While the picture appears disheartening, for aspiring technologists and tech educators there are enormous opportunities in pivoting to this new capacities-based learning approach with AI – both in increased recruitment and higher salaries.
Demand for AI specialists has tripled in the UK. The average UK salary in AI-based roles stands at £77,781 a year – 64 per cent higher than the UK average. AI-skilled candidates command salaries up to 40 per cent higher than their peers.
This is due to all industries looking to incorporate AI alongside a lack of AI-skilled workers in the UK, with 78 per cent of tech employers struggling to find qualified talent.
This provides an open goal for those tech educators who can help learners fill that gap.
Pivot fast but think long-term
Alternative education programmes and universities are already shifting, but at different speeds. Bootcamps are moving from a Javascript-heavy focus to Python and other AI-relevant languages, benefiting from shorter iteration cycles to help them adapt to industry shifts.
Some have introduced AI and machine learning which sits within a wider approach to teaching under-the-hood mental models creating autonomous engineers.
In contrast, universities have been slower to adapt, although some are making the leap.
The University of York now offers a BSc in computer science with AI, with modules on machine learning, robotics and deep learning. And the Universities of Kent and Bristol are introducing AI degrees this year. However, after three years of study, it’s impossible to say what will be relevant in the field upon graduation with the increasing pace of tech innovation.
But the real opportunity is teaching students deep mental models that allow them to master any new framework or tech stack that arises, without needing to go back into education to upskill when the landscape changes again.
Data from 2025 shows that 70.1 per cent of full-time Codesmith graduates landed jobs within a year, with total compensation equivalent to £82,372.
With more relaxed attitudes to employees without degrees, bootcamps have the edge; 38 per cent of hiring professionals now say degrees aren’t important at all versus 19 per cent who said they are very important.
A new frontier
The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs report states that while AI is a disruptive force leading to an overall decline in jobs, technology-related roles are the fastest-growing jobs.
With the government’s drive to boost AI capabilities, appetite for AI-skilled technologists is soaring. Given the nation’s stagnant wages across most industries, tech educators who can bring students into this growing market offer a career and job security that exists almost nowhere else in the UK.
Your thoughts