In today’s rapidly evolving world, educators play a vital role in helping students build the skills they need to thrive in the future — creativity, problem-solving, adaptability, innovation, and more. This blog explores how career-connected learning, STEM, entrepreneurship, and AI empower students to become confident creators and leaders, ready to shape the world of tomorrow.

When I speak to my students in my classroom and when I work with other educators, I often say that we have to be ready to provide opportunities that will help our students as they are preparing for the future, because the reality is, they are the future. Educators have many responsibilities. Each day presents challenges and decisions that we must make in the best interest of our students. The decisions we make about how we teach, the experiences we design for our students, and the tools we place in their hands will directly shape what tomorrow and the future will look like. When I think about the idea of building tomorrow’s skills today, it gives me perspective and also challenges me. I feel challenged to go beyond just delivering content and to find ways to empower students to shift from consumers to innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs.

Future: Building Problem Solvers & Innovators

Career-connected learning is a great way for students to learn about the “jobs of the future.” Preparing them for future success in the workforce is important, but I am also invested in preparing them to be problem solvers, innovators, and leaders. These are the roles they’ll be faced with and we must prepare them to adapt to whatever the future may bring.

Entrepreneurship is a great example. In my own classes, we have discussed this over the year. Being an entrepreneur can involve many things when it comes to skill-building. Even if students never launch a business, fostering an entrepreneurial mindset — which is based on curiosity, resilience, creativity, and the courage to take risks — prepares them for any journey they may go on. Suppose we combine this with a focus on STEM. In that case, students connect with the ways science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can be used not just to understand the world around them, but to take a hand in reshaping it and solving problems.

In my classes, I’ve had students design podcasts, create logos and their brands, develop business plans, and, many times, explore AI with my guidance. At the end of these experiences, it wasn’t the end product that mattered the most, but how they discovered their own agency. They realized that their ideas mattered, became more confident, and saw how they could use technology as a tool to bring those ideas to life.

Future Skills

I often refer to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, which highlights skills that will define the workforce by 2027: analytical thinking, creative thinking, AI and big data, resilience, flexibility, leadership, social influence, curiosity, and lifelong learning.

Although AI is ranked third, the skills surrounding it are essentially human-centered. The skills in question are adaptability, imagination, and collaboration. We will help foster these skills when students have opportunities to take the lead on projects, embrace risks, and learn about and experiment with emerging technologies.

When we bring in career-connected learning aligned with these skills, it doesn’t just prepare students for future jobs; it will prepare them to face challenges we may not yet be able to predict. With AI and emerging technologies, some issues include determining climate change solutions, considering ethical dilemmas surrounding AI, or issues that are faced by some industries that may not even exist today.

AI as a Creative Partner

Artificial intelligence is often discussed as a disruptor, but in classrooms, it can be a creative partner. With proper guidance and support for all students, we can help them understand how to leverage AI to brainstorm ideas, analyze complex problems, test scenarios, or use it as an assistant as they develop their entrepreneurial projects.

The key is teaching students to use AI with purpose and discernment, especially at a time when distinguishing between human and AI-generated content is challenging. Some may consider AI as their thought partner. It can be used as:

• A tool to present multiple perspectives or role-play
• A coach who helps students test and refine their thinking
• An evaluator that promotes ongoing reflection and investigation into bias, accuracy, and ethics

It should not replace human creativity, but instead, it should be a way to amplify it. I’ve seen students who hesitate to share their ideas gain confidence when AI helps them brainstorm, develop, or visualize their thoughts. The process shifts from that fear of “getting it wrong” to excitement about “what’s possible.” It eases some of the hesitation that comes with learning and risk-taking. For educators seeking ideas and models for using an AI assistant, tools like Brisk Teaching, Kira Learning, or TeachShare can spark additional ideas for classroom use and help create career-connected learning opportunities!

Career-connected learning should encourage students to see themselves as innovators and explorers, rather than just passive recipients of knowledge. Consider the powerful intersection of STEM and entrepreneurship:

• A group of students uses data science to analyze local water quality, then designs a campaign (with entrepreneurial storytelling) to engage their community.
• Middle schoolers explore robotics, then pitch their prototype as a solution to support elderly neighbors with everyday tasks.
• High schoolers learn coding then build AI-powered chatbots to support peers with mental health resources.

These aren’t just “what-ifs.” I’ve seen similar projects being started in classrooms. Opportunities like this demonstrate how STEM and entrepreneurship combined provide students with both the skills to create and the confidence to share their creations.

We want our students to know that their ideas matter and they can make an impact now. Believing in themselves and their potential is key!

Making Learning Relevant

One of the most transformative elements of career-connected learning is relevance. When students see how their classroom experiences connect to real-world problems and opportunities, everything shifts. Motivation increases. Learning deepens. Retention improves. Here are a few ways educators can make this happen:

• Design Authentic Challenges: Focus assignments on real-world problems. Rather than solving abstract equations, have students design models to reduce energy use in their school or identify another local challenge to address.
• Integrate Emerging Tech: Bring in AI, coding, and cybersecurity as natural parts of projects students may do, especially if in cross-curricular experiences.
• Partner with the Community: Collaborate with local businesses, nonprofits, or universities to provide mentorship and feedback to students, which will boost relevance in learning.
• Foster Agency: Give students voice and choice in projects so they see themselves as leaders of their own learning journey. When they see the impact of their work, it builds many skills, and it is more valued and relevant in their lives. 

I often remind students and educators that the careers our students will hold may not exist yet; it can be a bit scary, but I think it’s also exciting. Think about it for a moment. Five years ago, how many people knew about roles like “AI prompt engineer” or “virtual reality architect”? A very low number, I would guess, and now, they are real careers and ones that can provide a very profitable future.

The idea of building tomorrow’s skills today reminds us that the future is not waiting — it’s being built right now, in our classrooms, by our students. When we design learning that blends STEM, entrepreneurship, and AI, and when we anchor it in the human-centered skills outlined by the World Economic Forum, we are not just preparing students for what’s next. We are empowering them to create it. We are just getting them started.

About the Author:

Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth is an award-winning educator, attorney, and international speaker with nearly 30 years in education. She is the author of ten books and consults with school districts across the U.S. on AI integration, AI and the law, cybersecurity, digital citizenship, and future-ready learning. Rachelle is a podcaster and frequently moderates and serves on discussion panels. Follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and connect on LinkedIn.