AI-enhanced careers education

What is it about?

This study explored how artificial intelligence (AI) can improve careers education in secondary schools. Working with teachers, researchers, and a manufacturing industry partner, the team designed a course using AI tools, like chatbots and video avatars, to help students explore job pathways and create personalised career plans. The project found that AI can boost student engagement but also raises ethical questions about fairness and teacher roles. A new model, SAICEM, was created to guide schools in using AI responsibly. The work supports global goals for quality education and decent work by making career learning more inclusive, engaging, and future-ready.

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Photo by Robynne O on Unsplash

Photo by Robynne O on Unsplash

Why is it important?

It matters because it tackles a very practical problem: many secondary students get uneven access to high-quality careers guidance, just as labour markets are shifting quickly and unevenly. Improves equity of access: AI-supported guidance (when well designed) can offer more consistent, on-demand support for students who may not have ready access to careers advisers, workplace networks, or up-to-date industry information. Strengthens decision-making for pathways: Tools like chatbots and video avatars can help students explore options, compare pathways, and translate interests into plausible plans, rather than relying on generic information sessions or one-off counselling. Builds school–industry relevance: Co-design with a manufacturing partner helps ensure the learning reflects real roles, skills, and pathways, reducing the gap between schooling and local labour market opportunities. Shows what “works” and what’s risky: The study does not just promote AI, it documents the trade-offs: increased engagement alongside concerns about bias/fairness, privacy, and shifts in teacher responsibility. That evidence is crucial for schools making adoption decisions. Provides a governance framework, not just a tool: Creating SAICEM is important because schools need more than products; they need a model to guide implementation, accountability, and ethical safeguards across contexts. Clarifies the changing role of teachers: As AI enters careers education, teachers remain central as curriculum designers, ethical gatekeepers, and interpretive supports. Making those roles explicit helps prevent “automation by default”. Aligns with broader policy goals: By connecting the work to quality education and decent work, it links school-level innovation to system-level aims: preparing students for participation in work and society without widening existing inequalities.