Teach17

How do we prepare young people for jobs that will increasingly involve AI, while making sure they continue to develop the very human skills that technology cannot simply replace?

Barclays LifeSkills has launched Accelerate your skills, a national competition supported by the Atlassian Williams F1 Team. It gives young people a real-world challenge, encourages them to use AI thoughtfully and asks them to develop an idea they can research, refine and present.

For schools looking for a ready-made careers, enrichment, PSHE, computing or cross-curricular project, it is worth a look.

1. It is open to young people aged 11–25

Schools, colleges, universities and youth organisations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can take part. There are separate judging categories for ages 11–14, 14–16 and 16–25.

2. There is a genuine Formula 1 connection

The competition is supported by the Atlassian Williams F1 Team, giving the project a context that many young people may immediately recognise and engage with.

3. The challenge is built around a real-world brief

Williams celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2027. Teams are asked to explore how an iconic brand can continue to inspire people, rather than simply completing a theoretical classroom exercise.

4. AI is part of the project

Rather than pretending pupils will enter a workplace without AI, the competition asks them to consider how it can support their thinking.

5. But AI is deliberately not supposed to do everything

Barclays describes AI as a “co-driver”. The important part is still the thinking done by the young people themselves.

6. Human skills sit at the heart of the challenge

Creativity, communication, adaptability, problem solving, critical thinking and ethical reasoning all feature prominently.

7. It could prompt some useful conversations about AI

Teachers could use the project to discuss questions such as: When is AI genuinely helping? When should we challenge its answer? How do we check information? And how do we make sure an idea remains our own?

8. The project has three clear stages

The competition can be divided into research, ideation and presentation, with each stage taking a minimum of one lesson. That makes it much easier to fit around an existing timetable.

9. You do not necessarily need to create a whole new course

It could work as part of careers education, PSHE, computing, business, design, form time, an enrichment programme or a collapsed timetable day.

10. There are resources to help teachers run it

Barclays LifeSkills provides leader and young-person toolkits with guidance and activities, so teachers are not expected to build the project from scratch.

11. The final entry is manageable

Teams submit a presentation of no more than 10 slides. This keeps the focus on selecting the strongest ideas rather than producing a huge amount of material.

12. Students need to show their research

The presentation should explain the insights they discovered and how those findings helped shape their eventual solution.

13. They also need to show how AI was used

This is an interesting addition. Students are not simply judged on the finished product; they need to explain how AI supported their thinking.

14. The process matters as well as the final idea

Teams are asked to demonstrate the human skills they used while working on the challenge. That gives teachers an opportunity to focus on teamwork, reflection and how ideas improve over time.

15. There are substantial prizes for schools and organisations

National winners can secure a £5,000 cash prize for their school or organisation, while regional winners can receive £1,000. There are also additional prizes for the young people in winning teams.

16. The deadline is Friday 18 December 2026

Entries must be submitted online by 23:59 on Friday 18 December, giving schools most of the autumn term to develop their ideas. Winners are due to be announced online on Friday 29 January 2027.

17. Perhaps the biggest benefit is that it makes employability skills tangible

Schools talk a lot about preparing pupils for the future workplace. Projects such as this give pupils an opportunity to actually practise some of those skills: researching an unfamiliar problem, working with others, questioning information, using AI responsibly, developing an idea and explaining it convincingly.

For a school looking for an autumn-term enrichment project, this could therefore offer considerably more than simply entering a competition.

Find out more and register for the Barclays LifeSkills Accelerate your skills competition:

Accelerate your skills – Barclays LifeSkills