Exploring the impact of Artificial Intelligence on Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Over the last decades, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed the way people do things as humans in both social and economic contexts. AI is still opening new development opportunities for several industries and sectors, boosting a paradigmatic shift in their typical processes and practices. This disruptive technology is also deeply reshaping education both at teaching and learning level. Drawing on these considerations, this paper aims at contributing to the growing research on the topic focusing on a specific education domain, the Vocational Education and Training (VET) investigating if and how AI application is reshaping this domain, enhancing the educational experience and consequently the related workplace. In doing so, an empirical research approach has been implemented, based on primary data gathered among VET trainers. The data gathering phase is still ongoing. fsQCA will be used to analyse the data. Some preliminary findings confirm that there is a growing demand for AI-oriented training in VET education. This suggests a growing recognition of the importance of AI skills and the desire to incorporate AI-related training into their programs and operations. This paper offers original contributions both to theory and practice defining the current and future practice that AI can improve, offering to professionals better and more collaborative educational services for enhancing their knowledge and competencies, and in doing so the overall workplace. However, it doesn’t come without some limits. In particular, this study is somewhat limited by specificity of the analyzed domain and by the national scope of the analysis, which constrains findings generalizability.