The purpose of the Future AI Readiness (FAIR) consortium is to bring together educators, academics, technologists, policymakers, and industry leaders to bridge the gap between education and the workplace in the age of artificial intelligence. By convening a diverse international network, the consortium will provide strategic guidance on how education systems can adapt to ensure that young people are fully prepared for careers shaped by AI.
This work will focus on understanding the most significant ways AI is transforming the world of work, and anticipating where these trends are heading. Whereas the educational sector is responding tactically to the ubiquity and growth of AI in all aspects of learning, knowledge creation and examination, both defensively and constructively, a more fundamental strategic issue is not being fully addressed by existing initiatives.
It is clear that the vertical, indeed exponential, growth in the capabilities of AI are seeing it increasingly able to match human cognitive skills and intelligence in an ever-increasing range of fields. As this seems likely to continue, AI will provide a lower cost substitute for human employees in many fields of work and social and economic arenas, threatening and reshaping the world of employment in perhaps fundamental ways. In this context, it seems clear that humans must learn to harness this wave and not be submerged beneath it. To do this they must have a range of capabilities – cognitive, emotional and social – that are ‘fit-for-purpose’ and that may be different to those generated by today’s historically-inherited educational systems and pedagogies.
The FAIR consortium seeks to explore this critical issue head on. It first seeks to ‘imagine’ the AI- transformed world of work in partnership with leading experts from this field. Deriving a vision of the skills and characteristics that will be needed for this world of work, it then seeks to bring together educationalists from professional post-graduate institutions already beginning to appreciate such a vision, undergraduate colleges that will build relevant foundational skills to feed students into such institutions, and leading schools and colleges with the institutional capacity to engage with tertiary education in a parallel way.
It will create practical guidance in the skills needed and the pathways to teach these at school and university level. In other words, we will not only seek to imagine the world of work resulting from AI a few years from now, but have the courage to re-imagine the knowledge, cognitive capacities and emotional and social characteristics humans will need to succeed in a transformed world, to start to re-imagine what ‘fit-for-purpose’ education systems will look like, and how to begin the journey of transforming existing institutions into these paradigms.
In addition, the consortium will also examine the ethical dimensions of AI in education, develop frameworks to promote equity and inclusion, and explore how AI can enable personalised learning. It will act as a platform for collaboration between schools, higher education institutions, governments, third sector organisations and industry partners—ensuring that innovations, best practice, and policy influence are shared globally and applied strategically.
Ultimately, the consortium seeks to provide international leadership in shaping education for the AI era: aligning curricula, redefining assessment, building educator capacity, informing policy, and ensuring that every learner has the opportunity to thrive in a rapidly evolving world of work.
Future-readiness for the AI workplace - Identify the most significant ways AI is transforming the world of work and define the skills, mindsets, and literacies young people need to be taught in schools, colleges and universities to thrive in AI-influenced careers.
Career pathways and lifelong learning - Explore how education systems can create flexible pathways from school into higher education, vocational routes, and emerging professions shaped by AI – supporting students as lifelong learners.
Global collaboration and best practice sharing - Begin to establish networks of schools, universities, and industry experts to co-create and share resources, insights, and innovations related to AI and the future of work.
AI agnostic - Not start from an assumption about whether AI is ‘the best or the worst thing’ for humanity, nor about the benefits of specific platforms.
Equity and inclusion - Argue that all learners regardless of background, geography, or socioeconomic status should have access to opportunities, skills, and resources to thrive in an AI-influenced world.
Coherence across educational stages - Strengthen the links between schooling, higher education, vocational training, and lifelong learning to create seamless pathways that prepare students for evolving careers.
Ethical, safe and responsible AI - Embed ethical awareness and responsible use of AI into learning environments, fostering critical thinking about technology’s societal impacts, fairness, and human values.
Human-centred - Promote the human values of emotional intelligence, empathy, ethical awareness and critical thinking as complementary to AI and essential in a vision of an AI enhanced future.
Curricular realignment for the AI era - Develop and promote a strategic framework to realign curricula across school level education, ensuring learners are prepared for AI-enabled workplaces.
Global leadership in AI-education guidance - Position the consortium as an authoritative voice supporting education providers to reimagine curricula, pedagogy, and institutional strategy in the age of AI-workplaces.
Policy and governmental influence - Inform education policy at national and international levels by providing evidence