Artificial intelligence is poised to transform vocational education

Artificial intelligence is poised to transform vocational education, starting with these four courses, according to a new report.

Advances in AI will force changes in vocational education.

Courses in marketing, communication, conveyancing and insurance broking are top of the list to be affected by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, says a new report for the Future Skills Organisation.

The report, titled Building an AI Empowered Workforce: Priority Framework, identified four critical priority diploma and advanced diploma qualifications in these areas where the skills that need to be taught are being transformed by AI.

The FSO, with representatives from business and unions, is one of the federal government-back jobs and skills councils responsible for advising on skill needs and for developing training packages that determine the content of vocational education courses in the finance, technology and business sectors.

FSO chief executive Patrick Kidd said AI was already making a huge impact on the workplace and the training system needed to adjust. The report, prepared with economic research firm Mandala Partners, tells the FSO which areas it needs to look at first.

Mr Kidd said one in five Australians work in finance, technology and business – the sectors that the FSO deals with.

“It’s important we are responsive to these changes,” he said.

“However, it is still early days, and we need to better grasp what this means for the skills required.

“There’s a lot to ponder. This framework (in the report) will help us identify the topics we should focus on initially.”

The priority areas for responding to AI – marketing, communication, conveyancing and insurance broking – were determined by looking for vocational skills that are both highly impacted by AI and that are also priority occupations in high demand and experiencing shortages.

Another 27 vocational qualifications – for example, human resource management – were determined to be highly impacted by AI but of less importance to indus­try.

Another 23 vocational qualifications were judged to have low exposure to being AI impacted but were of high priority to business. It also found 35 vocational qualifications had low exposure to AI and were of low business importance.

The findings build on an earlier FSO report from December last year, Impact of Generative AI on Skills in the Workplace, which said higher level skills, which rely more heavily on cognitive abilities, would be more affected by AI.

“This means that qualifications from universities face the greatest need to change,” the earlier report says.

However the FSO’s responsibilities are limited to the vocational education sector.

Mr Kidd said the report would help the FSO to identify the highest priority areas for attention to help ensure that vocational education and training qualifications reflect Australia’s needs.