Synopsis
In Artificial Intelligence in Vocational Education, Leon Furze reflects on his experience at the Future Skills Organisation National Forum in Canberra, arguing that the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector is ideally positioned to meaningfully integrate GenAI. The VET sector serves 5 million Australian students annually across diverse industries—from trades to allied health to creative arts—and roughly two-thirds of Australians work in small to medium enterprises where GenAI can be genuinely useful for administrative tasks. While updating VET training packages is notoriously slow, Furze highlights calls from sector leaders to move quickly on skills training while being more measured on regulation. He argues that VET has more assessment flexibility than K-12 or higher education, relying heavily on observations, simulations, role plays, and practical assessments that are naturally less vulnerable to AI interference—you can’t use ChatGPT to fix a circuit or support a special needs child. VET teachers could play a crucial role in helping time-poor small business owners and tradespeople understand AI’s practical applications, particularly for ESL students and literacy support. Furze is optimistic that with quality professional development for teachers and accessible resources for SMEs, the VET sector can make the best use of AI technologies among all education sectors, focusing on real-world applications rather than hype.
Originally published at: https://leonfurze.com/2025/08/25/artificial-intelligence-in-vocational-education/
Links
- https://leonfurze.com/2025/08/25/artificial-intelligence-in-vocational-education/
- https://www.futureskillsorganisation.com.au/
- https://leonfurze.com/2025/07/24/stuck-thinking-and-end-of-school-exams/
- https://vdc.edu.au/vdc-news/generative-ai-and-its-impact-in-the-workplace/
- https://www.chisholm.edu.au/
- https://leonfurze.com/2025/04/28/the-myth-of-inevitable-ai/
- https://www.futureskillsorganisation.com.au/skills-accelerator-ai/
- https://leonfurze.com/2024/04/23/making-meaning-with-multimodal-genai/
- https://leonfurze.com/2025/07/21/everything-ive-learned-so-far-about-openais-agents/
- https://bsky.app/profile/leonfurze.com
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