AI for Career Readiness

Selection to this Spotlight presents a unique opportunity for education innovators operating in the non-profit sector in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France.  The final collection will consist of 2-4 innovations that will receive resources and organisational support for their scaling journey, using tools such as those described in HundrED's 2024 report The Resource Portfolio: Maximising Investments in Education Innovation.

Career Readiness education (also termed as career education or career guidance), for the purposes of this Spotlight project, will encompass programming that prepares youth for the transition from academic to vocational or professional work life.  This programming should inspire agency in the individual to self-determine interests and take steps to achieve the necessary skills and milestones required for their desired career path.  Additionally, Career Readiness in the 21st century should prepare youth for inevitable transitions from one career path to other adjacent or even distant possibilities.

Artificial Intelligence can be valuable to career readiness programming.  In particular, generative AI that uses Large Language or foundational models can be employed to assist educators and learners alike.  For example, developers have used the adaptive abilities of AI to personalise learning, help with student performance tracking and the automation of everyday classroom tasks, and drive learner-centred programming.

The speed with which AI has become ubiquitous is both exciting and cause for concern.  As such, responsible AI usage has become a necessary skill, and one that undoubtedly should be explicitly taught.  Education innovations in this area focus on preparing learners to engage with AI effectively and ethically, encouraging them to maintain their own critical  thinking, creative independence, and problem-solving skills.

What Kinds of Innovations Are We Looking For?

Career Readiness education innovations using Artificial Intelligence to enhance their programmatic format and operating in the non-profit sector in Europe are invited to apply.  Selected innovations will demonstrate measurable impact and potential for scalability, as well as the following:

• Employ Artificial Intelligence as a tool or as an area of study within a career-readiness programme
• Have a target audience of middle school through post-secondary education
• Support young people, aged 12 and up, and/or educators who deliver career readiness curriculum and programming  
• Support marginalised groups (girls, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, people of the global majority, those qualifying for financial or nutritional assistance)
• Bridge the gap between school and work life

Submission Criteria

1) Education innovators whose solutions address current career readiness needs for:

• Middle school, high school, and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET)
• Public and private schools or after school programming

2) Have established relationships with schools in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and/or France

3) Operate based on a not-for-profit model, with: 

• Local registration with the UK Charities Commission
• Registration as an association in France (organisations d'intérêt général, régies par la loi du 1 juillet 1901 et par le décret du 16 août 1901)
• Registration as a nonprofit in Ireland

Submit your innovation by May 8, 2025 to be reviewed by HundrED's research team, who will shortlist the innovations for an Advisory Board review. You can submit your innovation in any language; submission guides are provided in English and French. Please note that the submission form is in English.

Five to ten finalists will be notified by September 2025. These innovators will be invited to create a scaling proposal, which will inform the selection process for two to four innovations which will be awarded additional resources for scaling.  Selected innovations' scaling journeys will be published in the form of impact reports to be released in late 2026.