Year13 launches AI Career Coach in partnership with Microsoft

Year13, an Australian-based technology platform, has unveiled its new AI-powered initiative aimed at aiding school leavers in their transition from school to the workforce.

Year13 has launched "Career Coach", a solution utilising artificial intelligence to provide personalised career guidance to students, as part of its efforts to enhance opportunities for young people. The Career Coach initiative was piloted in North Carolina, US, and the organisation plans to expand its reach to Australia and globally by the beginning of the 2025 school year.

Year13 was founded in 2011 as a blog and has since evolved into a platform offering various resources, including articles, skills programs, and job opportunities. The platform is intended to assist school leavers, recent graduates, and educators across Australia and the United States. Cofounders Saxon Phipps and Will Stubley established the platform to address the challenges school leavers face in navigating their futures.

Phipps says, "We put so much pressure on young people to know what they're going to do for the rest of their lives. School leavers only have a very small window of opportunity to experience different industries and educational pathways. We base this pressure on the idea that there's a linear path to success, but 66% of students are telling us that they're leaving school with no plan as to what they want to be able to do. We have the resources to help them."

Year13 has collaborated with Microsoft to create modern skilling modules that provide students and educators with the skills necessary for the digital economy. This project is part of Microsoft's AI National Skills Initiative, which seeks to empower one million people in Australia and New Zealand with digital capabilities by 2026.

The AI Amplified program is a product of the partnership between Year13, Microsoft, and KPMG, designed to acquaint students with emerging AI tools and technologies, such as large language models. The program has already seen success, with over 10,000 modules completed in its pilot phase.

Phipps says, "We saw that we needed to help upskill young people, to remove that stigma surrounding AI. How can they use it to understand their skills? How can they use it at scale to understand complex problems and then articulate that understanding? That's why we developed AI Amplified, and it's having the desired impact. We're looking to have about 50,000 completions by 2025."

Year13 aims to broaden the understanding of available career paths and encourage skill development among school leavers to improve retention rates in universities and apprenticeships. Stubley noted, "In Australia, we have a university dropout rate of 30% in the first year and apprenticeship dropout rates close to 50 per cent. There's clearly a problem. Our goal is to move the needle on those sorts of baselines."

Stubley observed progress, saying, "So far, all of the lead indicators regarding increased confidence, exploration of different opportunities and general engagement from students have increased by an order of magnitude."

In conjunction with Microsoft, Year13 is also deploying AI solutions that tailor career advice to students, aiming to enhance educational outcomes. Stubley remarked, "For us, AI is not a buzzword. It's game-changing for our whole product and the industry vertical of career education and support. We can now tailor all the products and content using large language models, making the experience so much more approachable."

The Career Coach, built with Microsoft Azure OpenAI, offers tailored guidance by leveraging personalised and labour market data to support students in identifying careers, understanding strengths, and making informed decisions.

Phipps stated, "Our initial conversations were centred on how AI can help young people who only need a bit of assistance. Career Coach creates time for the career advisor, enabling them to provide more comprehensive support to the 20 per cent of students who need that more one-to-one guidance."

Plans are to extend Career Coach's reach globally by 2025, further offering Year13's services to an international student audience.

The organisation is also transitioning its cloud and data infrastructure to Microsoft Azure, enhancing its platform's functionality and connection across the education and employment ecosystem.

Stubley emphasised the significance of this transition, saying, "A core problem that we are solving is that the school-to-work ecosystem is disconnected. A large part of what we are doing is helping bring that ecosystem together, partnering with different student information systems, employers and content providers. Microsoft is at the heart of that ecosystem. Who else within the education space can help pull it all together? If Microsoft isn't in the picture, you're removing a leg from the stool."

Year13 ensures its services are accessible and beneficial to as many young people as possible, promoting equal opportunities irrespective of their background.