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Professionals · code 2320

Vocational education teachers

AI can keep the grade records. Teaching someone to weld safely is still hands-on.

Keeping grades and attendance is the one task AI could take a fair chunk of. One-to-one teaching and showing people how to use tools safely it barely touches.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Vocational education teachers teach or instruct vocational or occupational subjects in adult and further education institutions and to senior students in secondary schools and colleges. They prepare students for employment in specific occupations or occupational areas for which university or higher education is not normally required. Tasks include - (a) developing curricula and planning course content and methods of instruction; (b) determining training needs of students or workers and liaising with individuals, industry and other education sectors to ensure provision of relevant education and training programmes; (c) presenting lectures and conducting discussions to increase students’ knowledge and competence; (d) instructing and monitoring students in the use of tools, equipment and materials and the prevention of injury and damage; (e) observing and evaluating students’ work to determine progress, provide feedback and make suggestions for improvement; (f) administering oral, written or performance tests to measure progress, evaluate training effectiveness and assess competency; (g) preparing reports and maintaining records such as student grades, attendance rolls and training activity details; (h) supervising independent or group projects, field placements, laboratory work or other training; (i) providing individualized instruction and tutorial or remedial instruction; (j) conducting on-the-job training sessions to teach and demonstrate principles, techniques, procedures or methods of designated subjects. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Automotive technology instructor - Cosmetology instructor - Vocational education teacher Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - School principal - 1345 - Secondary education teacher - 2330 Notes Those who teach vocational subjects that are intended to prepare students for employment in a particular occupational group should be classified in Unit Group 2320: Vocational Education Teachers, whether they work in a general secondary school or in a vocational or technical school or college. Those who teach, at secondary education level, subjects such as mathematics that do not aim to prepare students for employment in a specific occupational area, should be classified in Unit Group 2330: Secondary Education Teachers, even if they are employed in a vocational or technical college.

  • vocational teacher

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

65 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Minimal Exposure

273 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 10 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 34.8 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 34.8 = 65.2.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Minimal Exposure”: A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't.

This job rates 44.5 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Vocational education teachers 65

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Grades, attendance and training records.
  • Course planning.
  • Written tests and assessments.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Teaching practical skills.
  • Keeping students safe with tools.
  • One-to-one support.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Training for new technologies like EVs and heat pumps.
  • Simulators and virtual training.
  • Retraining adults changing careers.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Medium

48 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 71 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Some

45 how hands-on

A fair part of this job is hands-on, so robots would be needed for that part, not just software.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 27 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

45 How
hands-on
27 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 3 US jobs .

finger skill 32.1 · hand skill 31 · cramped spaces 18.2 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 65, against an average of 35. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 65

    Preparing reports and maintaining records such as student grades, attendance rolls, and training activity details

    Medium
  2. 44

    Developing curricula and planning course content and methods of instruction

    Low
  3. 36

    Determining training needs of students or workers and liaising with individuals, industry and other education sectors to ensure provision of relevant education and training programmes

    Low
  4. 34

    Administering oral, written or performance tests to measure progress, evaluate training effectiveness and assess competency

    Low
  5. 32

    Presenting lectures and conducting discussions to increase students' knowledge and competence

    Low
  6. 32

    Supervising independent or group projects, field placements, laboratory work or other training

    Low
  7. 32

    Conducting on-the-job training sessions to teach and demonstrate principles, techniques, procedures, or methods of designated subjects.

    Low
  8. 30

    Observing and evaluating students' work to determine progress, provide feedback, and make suggestions for improvement

    Low
  9. 25

    Providing individualized instruction and tutorial or remedial instruction

    Very Low
  10. 21

    Instructing and monitoring students in the use of tools, equipment and materials and the prevention of injury and damage

    Very Low

10 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
71
AI does it for you
48

Sidekick wins, by 23 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2422

So, should vocational teachers be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Parts of it are changing. Reports and records are rated Medium, and curriculum, training needs, testing, lectures, supervising projects and on-the-job training are Low; tutoring and teaching tool safety rate Very Low. AI takes on admin and some content; practical teaching stays human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 61. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →