AI skills. University readiness. One course.
AI Foundations for Schools is a university-backed AI readiness program for high school students. Students learn AI by building a study companion that helps them prepare for the exams and assessments that get them into university.
Not coding. Not tools. Not another self-paced certificate. The judgement, confidence and proof students need before they reach higher education or work.
Associate Professor Aaron Driver · Chief AI Officer · University of New England
The career path families planned is becoming unstable.
For decades the promise was simple: study hard, get the right degree, build a stable career. AI is breaking that promise at the point students depend on most - the first rung.
Universities’ expectations are changing; employers’ already have. A qualification is no longer enough - students need to show they can work with AI, question it and take responsibility for what they create. That holds across professional work, not just IT.
Entry-level hiring share in India has fallen in a single year as employers shift toward AI, data and domain capability.
India's tech workforce growth slowed to just 2.3 percent in FY26.
Of Indian children using AI think it is just a search engine.
Of tech firms now use skills assessments and portfolios over credentials for fresher hiring.
Of parents cite overuse and dependency as their top concern about children using AI.
Of Indian youth aged 15-29 have never enrolled in any AI training program.
Parents are already asking:
“What are you doing to make sure my child is not left behind?”
AI Foundations is an answer your school can stand behind.
Most AI courses teach tools. Your students need judgement.
The market is full of AI courses - coding bootcamps, self-paced certificates, tool tutorials. Most teach students how to use a tool, but students already have access to AI. Access is not the gap.
The gap is judgement.
When to use AI, when not to, how to question it, how to verify what it gives you, and how to take responsibility for what you create with it. AI Foundations builds that capability across any tool, any subject and any future pathway.
Competitors teach tools. AI Foundations builds readiness.
Learn AI by building the thing that gets them in.
AI Foundations for Schools is a structured, university-backed AI readiness program for your students in Years 8-10. Students learn AI by building their own study companion - a personalised system designed to help them prepare for the exams and assessments that get them into university.
It is delivered through Madgwick, UNE's learning environment, with teacher-guided classroom delivery, AI Tutor support and built-in learning safeguards. Your teachers remain in control of the learning experience at every stage.
Students learn how to use AI, question AI, work with AI responsibly and prove what they can do.
What it is
A learning environment built for how students actually learn.
Not a slide deck, not a video library - a learning environment your students interact with.
Every lesson is 3-5 minutes. Students move at their own pace through short, focused activities designed around how young people actually engage - not how adults wish they would.
Personalised learning
The platform adapts to each student. It meets them where they are, adjusts to how they respond and supports them when they get stuck - without doing the thinking for them.
Dialogue and roleplay
Students do not just read about AI. They talk to it. They challenge it. They practise real conversations - negotiating with AI, questioning its answers, catching its mistakes - in guided scenarios with built-in safeguards.
Simulations
Students face realistic situations where they have to decide how to use AI, when to trust it and when to override it. These are not quizzes. They are decisions with consequences.
Learning games
Short, engaging challenges that build capability through play. Students earn badges, track their growth and see themselves improving - lesson by lesson, topic by topic.
A portfolio that grows with them
Every activity contributes to a living portfolio. Students do not cram for a final test. They accumulate evidence of what they can do across the entire program - evidence they keep, and evidence they can show.
Safeguards throughout
Wellbeing check-ins, privacy protection and responsible-use guardrails are built into every lesson - with the AI Tutor for practice and teachers in control of the learning at every stage.
By the end, students have built something, proved something - and hold the record of it.
Three phases. Seven topics. One clear outcome.
AI Foundations for Schools moves your students through a structured learning journey: Learn. Build. Prove.
The whole program is designed so students do the thinking AI could do for them. That is the point. If AI does the thinking, students do not build the capability.
Students learn what AI actually is, what it can and cannot do, how to communicate with it effectively, and how to use it responsibly.
Topic 1 · AI Unmasked - What's Really Going On?
What AI is, how it works, why it makes mistakes and how to check its outputs.
Topic 2 · Talking to Machines - Getting AI to Actually Help
How to prompt properly, improve AI responses, protect personal information and use AI responsibly at school.
Students build their own AI study companion, learn context engineering and design a complete study system.
Topic 3 · Your AI, Your Rules
Design, build, test and improve a personal AI companion configured for their subjects.
Topic 4 · The Art of Context Engineering
Move beyond basic prompts to shape the full AI interaction using roles, examples, constraints and improvement loops.
Topic 5 · Building a System That Works
Build a personal study system using evidence-based strategies with AI-supported planning and wellbeing features.
Students develop critical evaluation skills, catch AI errors and compile a portfolio that demonstrates their AI readiness.
Topic 6 · Trust But Verify - Catching AI When It's Wrong
Check AI outputs for accuracy, reasoning and bias, and build a personal checking routine.
Topic 7 · Show Your Work - The Portfolio That Opens Doors
Assemble the portfolio, write the AI Readiness Statement and receive the final 4D Fluency Profile and credential.
Every lesson is 3-5 minutes. Every topic closes with a badge and a measurable growth snapshot. Students are evaluated nine times across the course so growth is visible to students, teachers and parents.
Your students do not just complete a course. They leave with proof.
Proof students can show a university or an employer - and proof your school can point to when parents ask what you are doing about AI.
Four capabilities. One framework. Built for the AI age.
AI Foundations for Schools is built around four practical AI capabilities.
Delegation
Description
Discernment
Diligence
The 4D Fluency Framework is published and research-backed. It measures what matters: not whether students can access AI, but whether they can use it well. Each capability is tracked from the first lesson to the last, with growth visible at every stage.
Parents are asking. Boards are watching.
They need AI judgement, not another coding course.
Guide AI use before it becomes something you police.
Built by the leading AI university. Ready to train your students.
The University of New England was Australia's first regional university to offer distance education. For over 70 years, it has led major shifts in how education reaches people - distance, online and now AI.
UNE was the first university in Australia to give every one of its 22,000 students a full AI platform - not a chatbot, a complete suite of frontier AI tools with built-in safety training. We have trained them. Now we are ready to train yours.
LabNext70 is UNE's applied AI lab, led by Chief AI Officer Aaron Driver. It builds, tests and delivers AI-powered learning experiences designed to make education more human, more current and more applied.
AI Foundations for Schools is delivered through Madgwick, UNE's learning environment. Your educators remain in control of the pedagogy, content and learning experience, with safeguards built in from the start.