others in the tech industry<\/a> expect less extreme changes. Finding a job in computer science \u2014 a field that until recently felt like a golden ticket to a high-paying and stable career \u2014 has already become far more competitive as AI takes on more of that work, reducing the number of job opportunities.\n <\/p>\n\n Meanwhile, high schools are scrambling to determine how to teach students about AI and whether kids should be allowed to use it for their studies. Students are using it whether they\u2019re meant to or not; a 2024 Pew Research Center study found that half of US teens said they\u2019d used ChatGPT for homework.\n <\/p>\n
\n All of that is changing how some young people are planning for college and their careers. Some are opting to enter hands-on fields like healthcare that seem more secure, while others are learning how to apply AI to their desired role.\n <\/p>\n
\n CNN spoke with three current high school students to learn how AI is impacting their plans.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ask those working in tech, and they\u2019ll likely tell you that learning how to use AI is the best way for a high school student to prepare for a successful, sustainable career.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAI may not take your job, but someone who has AI skills might,\u201d said Colette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365 Copilot.\n <\/p>\n
\n LinkedIn data indicates that 70% of skills used by today\u2019s workforce will be \u201ccompletely changed\u201d by 2030, said Stallbaumer, who also heads Microsoft\u2019s Future of Work team. She encourages students to use AI creatively even if teachers aren\u2019t incorporating it into lesson plans.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAre you using AI to experiment? To build an app? Are you using it even as a study aid?\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n Some college students are now hedging their bets by double majoring in humanities and STEM-related fields, such as psychology and data science, said Rachel Blankstein, co-founder of NextGen Advising, which consults with college students and early career professionals about how to navigate the changing job market. That\u2019s in case one area of study ends up being more heavily impacted by AI than the other.\n <\/p>\n
\n Regardless of the field, a growing number of job descriptions now ask for AI skills or fluency, Blankstein said. A college degree alone often isn\u2019t enough to ensure a quick job offer these days, she said \u2014 students must think early about how to build professional skills outside of the classroom.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese poor kids who have worked so hard to get into college, all of a sudden, they really need to start thinking about their careers from day one,\u201d Blankstein said, adding that \u201cthe vast majority of (job prep) has nothing to do with their curriculum.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n If a student wants to go into finance, for example, they should ensure they have a strong grasp of financial instruments and markets starting in their freshman year of college, even if they\u2019re still mostly taking required general education courses, she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s those skills, rather than a focus on a specific field, that are likely to define young people\u2019s careers going forward, according to a study<\/a> of labor market demand by the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Wharton Business School and Accenture.\n <\/p>\n\n \u201cThe findings reinforce the value of viewing a career as a portfolio of skills rather than a sequence of job titles,\u201d the report states. Specific or technical skills, such as analytical fluency or context-based decision-making, are in greater demand than vague capabilities like \u201ccommunication\u201d or \u201cleadership,\u201d according to the report.\n <\/p>\n
\n Although uncertainty remains about how the job market will evolve because of AI, it does appear that young people will have to change along with it.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHow are we building our character, tenacity, curiosity, and empathy to succeed and adapt in a world where AI is bound to rise?\u201d Karissa said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the question that we should be focused on.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 High school students are on the verge of entering a very different job market than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-461324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}