The Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE) Career and Technical Education (CTE) Advisory Committee discussed the future of artificial intelligence in CTE during its November meeting.
Committee members said AI is expected to play a greater role in education in the coming decades, according to a KDE news release. Members reflected on changes in technology over their lifetimes and shared how they believe AI will shape CTE classrooms.
Mike Hesketh, representing Superb IPC, said teachers often need extra resources to help students who may be struggling and that AI can offer support when classroom time is limited.
“It’s always been a challenge of resources available to help those that didn’t quite understand lessons, to give them the time and the extra instruction or a different perspective,” Hesketh said in the release. “Seeing AI applied to this teaching is extremely exciting. What little I’ve done with this and asked questions, I’m amazed at how well it gives me very reasonable and helpful answers to solving technical problems.”
Tom Thompson, director of KDE’s Division of Student Transition and Career Readiness, presented potential changes in CTE if AI reshapes education and career preparation. Thompson told the committee he asked several AI models what CTE might look like in 2050 and shared the consensus of their responses.
The models suggested CTE could shift toward adaptable, high-tech skills with an emphasis on AI, automation, green technologies, soft skills and entrepreneurial thinking. CTE also may become integrated throughout education as career-connected learning, while accountability measures could evolve toward competency portfolios and microcredentials. The models projected more hybrid or virtual learning and the use of regional hubs for advanced training, along with greater incorporation of immersive technology, robotics and data science.
Gerald Brinson, a teacher at the Pulaski County Area Technology Center, said AI will be important to CTE’s future, but he believes people will remain essential both in classrooms and in hands-on careers.
“It seems like people will never go out of fashion. We always have to have someone to do the physical work,” Brinson said in the release. “I think that’s going to be more and more important as time progresses.”
During the most recent legislative session, KDE was asked to address barriers for those seeking occupation-based certification in electricity, plumbing and HVAC. KDE’s Office of Educator Licensure and Effectiveness and the Office of Career and Technical Education determined that professionals holding a Kentucky-issued master license in one of those fields will no longer be required to earn an associate’s degree to teach, the release said.
These teachers will enter at rank three and may move to rank two if they later earn an associate’s degree. They will still meet assessment requirements and participate in the New Teacher Institute. KDE filed the plan with the Legislative Research Commission on Sept. 15, and it will move through the regulatory process.
Thompson told the committee KDE is launching new pathways in CTE studies. Health science programs will add behavioral and mental health and sports medicine, while computer science studies will offer a new statewide AI pathway.
KDE is considering standards for ethical and general use of AI, as well as AI in the workplace. Each program area will include standards specific to how AI affects that career path.
KDE has partnered with the University of Louisville to create an AI Fellowship program set to begin in January. Participants will test AI-assisted classroom software, use it in their own teaching and share their experiences during monthly meetings, the release said. The group will complete a capstone project aimed at helping KDE develop an AI toolbox for CTE teachers. KDE is seeking eight participants, with applications due by Dec. 1.