Artificial intelligence across careers

The National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education awarded Education Development Center, Inc. $999,915 on October 1, 2026, under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) to develop instructional resources that integrate artificial intelligence skills into community and technical college technician education programs in advanced manufacturing and energy sectors.

The project, performed in Waltham, Massachusetts, through September 30, 2029, builds on a partnership among Education Development Center, Bridgerland Technical College (Utah), Green River College (Washington), Bunker Hill Community College (Massachusetts), Nashville State Community College (Tennessee), and Harford Community College (Maryland). The recipient will work with industry experts and college faculty to co-develop resources that translate AI applications used in technical practice into classroom instruction. Deliverables include plain-language descriptions of AI applications, performance rubrics describing increasing levels of AI competency, sector-specific AI in action statements, classroom-ready problem-based scenarios, and faculty resource guides. The project aims to identify and define AI applications across industry sectors; develop instructional resources for teaching and assessment in technician programs; prepare faculty to integrate AI into existing courses; and disseminate products and lessons learned to the field.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the skills technicians need to perform routine tasks, solve workplace problems, and contribute to innovation in high-priority industries. To address this challenge, this project focuses on preparing community and technical college students for jobs as AI-enabled technicians in the advanced manufacturing and energy sectors, which are central to the nation's economic competitiveness and technological leadership. The project will build on a long-standing, productive partnership among education development center, bridgerland technical college (UT), green river college (WA), bunker hill community college (MA), nashville state community college (TN), and harford community college (MD) to define what AI use looks like in technical work and translate that knowledge into instructional resources for faculty. Working with industry experts, college faculty and project staff will CO-develop resources to help faculty integrate AI skills into existing technician education courses and support students in building the AI fluency needed for emerging and changing technical careers. These resources will include plain-language descriptions of AI applications used by technicians, performance rubrics that describe increasing levels of AI use, sector-specific AI in action statements, classroom-ready problem-based scenarios, and faculty resource guides. The AI across careers project has four goals: (1) to identify and define the types of AI applications used across industry sectors and describe what these applications look like in practice as workers perform routine tasks and solve problems they encounter in daily practice; (2) to develop instructional resources that support the teaching and assessment of AI applications in advanced manufacturing and energy technician education programs; (3) to prepare faculty to integrate AI into existing courses; and (4) to disseminate products and lessons learned to community colleges, career and technical education programs, and technology leaders nationwide. The project will focus first on advanced manufacturing and then test the replicability of the approach in the energy sector. The project's initial research will employ a modified delphi technique with industry experts to identify and validate categories of AI applications. Annual follow-up interviews will examine how AI changes over time. Project staff, in collaboration with frontline AI-enhanced workers and faculty, will develop short action statements describing what work looks like when these applications are used by advanced manufacturing and energy workers, and they will develop rubrics and workplace scenarios to guide instruction and assessment of AI skills. Products and instructional resources will be compiled into a resource guide and disseminated nationally to the technician education community. The project will use continuous improvement cycles to refine the research-and-development process and will engage faculty in piloting and revising rubrics and instructional scenarios and developing faculty resource guides. Professional learning will include a summer institute, an academic-year community of practice, implementation clinics, and a micro-credential in AI applications integration. An external evaluation will use surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, and artifact review to examine implementation, faculty capacity, usefulness of the resources, dissemination reach, and integration of AI applications into college courses and strategic plans. Products and findings will be shared through a project website, creative commons licensing, ATE central, conference presentations, articles, social media, and national dissemination partners. The project will advance understanding of how industry research on AI-enhanced technical work can be translated into scalable instructional resources for technician education. This project is funded by the advanced technological education program, which focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.