In my previous article for Campus in the summer of 2024, I wrote about the importance of personalisation and listening to people when it came to digitally upskilling them. That was a key part of my role, working as a digital skills lead for the University of Exeter, with the remit to upskill 40,000 staff and students in “all things digital”.
The approach that my co-digital skills lead Dave Weller and I decided upon was to create a digital skills initiative, underpinned by a bespoke online self-assessment quiz and resource library.
The focus of the online software was to enable colleagues to privately discover where their digital skills capabilities and gaps lay, receive personalised resources matched to their identified training needs and use these to develop a professional development plan with their line manager.
- A whole-organisation approach to digital upskilling is the way forward
- Your greatest asset: how to focus efforts to upskill staff
- How to empower your university to integrate generative AI using tools and talent you already have
After 18 months in design and development, we launched the product to all staff in June 2025, and within less than four months, 40 per cent of all staff (over 2,500) had accessed the product, and almost 750 had completed a self-assessment quiz. This was no mean feat when similar off-the-shelf products struggle to engage more than 500 colleagues over a 12-month period.
What was the key to our success? I would say it was spending hundreds of hours listening to stakeholders across the institution as well as externally, about what was really needed, and what would and wouldn’t interest people. Most importantly, we assumed nothing and were prepared to change our approach if users didn’t understand it or find it useful.
And it is with this same listening ear that Dave and I decided in October 2025 to leave the university and to set up our own AI training company, WorkSmart-AI, specialising in supporting university staff to embrace AI without fear.
As anyone working in the higher education sector knows, there is a massive variety of opinions and emotions among university staff towards GenAI. While some are incredibly excited by its introduction to the workplace, others across the sector seem anxious and unsure.
What’s clear is that GenAI is something that all of us need to be aware of, whether we become avid users of it or not. Understanding the opportunities and the challenges that the tool presents within the workplace is, from my point of view, a necessity for anyone carrying out computer-based roles within higher education, akin to understanding the basics of compiling spreadsheets or producing documents online.
And the essential ingredient here is training. Once people start to understand GenAI, mindset change can happen, anxiety will start reducing and experimentation can become a regular occurrence in the workplace.
I believe that classic phrase “stranger danger” is exactly how many higher education colleagues feel towards GenAI, from my conversations with them. Just as we teach our children to be aware and cautious of people that they don’t know, I think the same attitude is being applied to GenAI – and I get it! Why shouldn’t we feel that we need to know and understand something before we fully buy in to it?
The problem, however, is that unless staff development and personalised GenAI training is prioritised to counteract this attitude and overcome this nervousness, then the greater the chance of resistance and anxieties growing. Throw in the potential of institutional pressure for staff to use new GenAI tools in a bid to improve productivity, and you’ve got some increasingly deeper holes being dug for everyone.
So, what do I think the way forward is? Well, of course, I’m going to say training. I’ve seen directly for the past nine years of working within universities the impact that targeted, personalised digital skills training can have on staff. It literally can make initially non-technical, nervous computer-users smile with their online accomplishments – changing anxieties into pride and happiness.
And I know that GenAI training has this same potential. It just needs us all to listen to each other about our needs and work together to remove the stranger from the room.
Here’s my advice for managers and staff looking to start GenAI training:
Start small, grow big: Make sure that you and your staff understand the basics of GenAI first, then move on to the more complex, challenging tasks.
Recognise this is a change: Booking in time to undertake training is essential. Prioritising it in professional development plans is a great way to help ensure it doesn’t get overlooked.
Be prepared to talk: Share your ideas or concerns with colleagues and learn from each other. Working on tasks together can often be so much more enjoyable and useful.
Embrace the change: Make sure that you and your staff understand the direct benefits of learning about GenAI and using it in the workplace. Understanding massively helps buy-in.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help: If you’re not sure whether you’re on the right track or the institution supports the use of certain tools, there will be designated people within the university there to help guide you.
Katie Steen is founder of WorkSmart-AI and former digital skills lead at the University of Exeter.
If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.
comment