“Who will be left behind?”: A Swedish case of learning AI in vocational education

[en] Increasing numbers of job roles emphasise skills related to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Alongside this trend, AI education has been incorporated into curricula at all levels, from K-12 to higher education. However, how to teach AI knowledge and transfer this knowledge into practice, especially to vocational students, remains under-investigated. To address this research gap, we first examined the goals and components of an AI curriculum that has been running for more than three years in Sweden. Then, we interviewed fourteen vocational students from different cohorts within the curriculum about their learning experiences. We found that the students expected more personalised learning and guidance from dedicated instructors, and a better curriculum structure. Further to this, many students wanted to learn more practical skills; it also became clear that technical training, sustainability, and reflection opportunities were given surprisingly little consideration. Building on the results of this case study, we provide recommendations for the future integration of AI into vocational education.

Research center :

Education, Culture, Cognition & Society (ECCS) > Institute of Cognitive Science and Assessment (COSA)

Disciplines :

Education & instruction

Author, co-author :

Metreveli, Anna ^✱

CHEN, Xiaowei ^✱; University of Luxembourg

Hedman, Anders

SERGEEVA, Anastasia ; University of Luxembourg

^✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

“Who will be left behind?”: A Swedish case of learning AI in vocational education

Publication date :

19 July 2025

Journal title :

International Journal of Educational Research

ISSN :

0883-0355

eISSN :

1873-538X

Publisher :

Elsevier BV

Volume :

133

Pages :

102697

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Focus Area :

Educational Sciences

Additional URL :

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035525001703?dgcid=rss_sd_all

Name of the research project :

U-AGR-6035 - IAS AES Anti-phishing - SCHILTZ Christine

Funders :

University of Luxembourg

Funding text :

Author 2 acknowledges the financial support of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Luxembourg through a Young Academic Grant (2021). The study was supported by the User Lab of the University of Luxembourg.

Available on ORBilu :

since 25 July 2025

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