One of the biggest questions facing workforce development programs is how to integrate the AI skills all workers will need to have to be successful in the coming years and decades, when it is so unclear which job skills will be completed by AI and which ones will remain the purview of humans going forward? Said another way, the well-known and long time systems problems of misalignment between demand (employers, and what they will be asking for from workers in the future) and supply (talent providers) is keeping talent providers from knowing how to prepare people differently for future roles. So, progress is stuck.
I recently found an article which reflects one of the strongest points of view about how to do this now – before occupations or jobs evolve fully, before employers know how they are going to change their hiring – so workforce organizations can move at the same time as employers, as opposed to waiting: Applied Co-Intelligence: Preparing Career and Technical Education Learners for an AI-Driven Workforce.
This recommendation, released last past February by the Association for Career and Technical Education based on knowledge, interviews, hundreds of articles, deep review of primary research, and the use of AI (see the last page), has three critical elements in my mind:
1) Introduction of a model called “applied co-intelligence” (ACI), which is a framework designed to prepare learners (such as career and technical education students, but not limited to them, for sure) to work effectively alongside AI in the future workforce. In this model, people move beyond simply using AI tools to fostering partnerships to produce outcomes together.
2) Within the model, it shares thinking on the continuum of how people will use AI in the future – starting with literacy, to fluency, to agency, and finally to mastery. Furthermore, in one of the most striking and helpful tables I’ve seen in years, it provides examples of what each of these levels of AI skills – such as AI fluency – means within occupational groups (such as caring professions like teaching or healthcare, or financial services.)
3) It then provides ideas to address the barriers which stand in the way of evolving curriculum and programs so teaching AI fluency in the context of occupational training occurs. The barriers include misalignment between industry and curriculum, and the need to upskill educators, among others.
It’s a bold vision, challenging workforce development and school educators to lean into curricular evolution by embracing the belief that co-intelligence – a partnership between people and AI – is the future. I’d highly encourage a read and look forward to talking with you more about this in the coming weeks and months.