Google launches Gemini Academy webinar series for UK teachers with built-in certification path

AIteacher training

27 Apr

Free monthly sessions combine live product demos with the official Gemini Certified Educator exam, in a push to embed AI fluency across whole school staff bodies.

Google for Education Gemini Academy whole-school live AI training promo featuring Luke Craig and Tim Morton — Google for Education's Gemini Academy combines live AI training with the official Gemini Certified Educator exam in a single 60-minute session, with Luke Craig (Communities and Programs Lead, UKI) and Tim Morton (GEG Leader, UK) hosting the May 13 webinar.

Google for Education has rolled out Gemini Academy, a series of free monthly webinars that walks UK school staff through the company's AI tools and the official Gemini Certified Educator exam in a single 60-minute session.

The program, confirmed by Luke Craig, Communities and Programs Lead for Google for Education UKI, runs live on May 13, June 9, and July 6, with sessions designed for entire teaching teams to attend together as weekly continuing professional development.

Posting on LinkedIn, Craig said: "Whole staff Gemini Academy: Introduce your teachers to Gemini, NotebookLM and get your official Gemini Certified Educator certificates, all in one 60 min after-school webinar." He added that he and Roddy Peters, a Google Educator Group Lead in the UK, delivered the first Academy earlier this month, with some teachers joining individually while others gathered as full staff bodies from a single classroom.

Certification kick-off built into every session

Each webinar splits into two parts. The first 40 minutes pair a Googler with a member of the Google Educator Community for live demonstrations of Gemini and NotebookLM features, covering general AI principles and classroom applications. The remaining 20 minutes are dedicated to walking attendees through the start of the official Gemini Certified Educator exam in real time.

Sessions are hosted on Edu on Air, Google's education events platform, with join links appearing on the registration page ten minutes before each scheduled start. The May 13 session, running from 15:30 to 16:30 BST, is co-hosted by Tim Morton, a UK Google Educator Group Lead. June 9 features Devin Falvey, and July 6 features Aleks House, both also UK Google Educator Group Leads.

Whole-school participation as the core design choice

The program is live-only. According to the official event listing, this is a deliberate choice intended to encourage collective school participation and real-time support, with staff expected to have devices ready throughout. The structure positions Gemini Academy less as a self-paced course and more as a fixed CPD slot that headteachers can schedule into the school week.

The approach reflects a wider competitive push from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI to establish their AI tools as the default infrastructure inside schools, with certification programs increasingly used as a hook for teacher adoption.

The next session lands on May 13. Whether whole-staff certification drives become a standard EdTech CPD format, or remain a Google-led experiment, will depend on how many UK schools convert these sixty minutes into measurable AI fluency across their teaching teams.