Estonia expands AI skills program TI-hüpe to vocational schools
Estonia's AI education initiative TI-hüpe will extend to vocational schools this school year, while basic school teachers will also gain access to special training courses.
Estonia is broadening the use of artificial intelligence in education. Last school year, the TI-hüpe program, which promotes responsible AI use in schools, already reached 154 of the country's 157 gymnasiums (upper secondary schools). This school year it will expand to vocational education institutions, covering both students and teachers, according to Estonian broadcaster ETV's "Aktuaalne kaamera".
Program head Ivo Visak said all vocational schools have expressed interest in joining. Some schools have already launched initial training groups where teachers support one another, learn together and share experience.
New digital skills module
The Viljandi Vocational Education Centre plans to incorporate TI-hüpe into its curriculum starting this autumn. Centre representative Marge Hein noted that students already actively use ChatGPT, so from autumn a new digital skills module will let everyone study and apply AI more deeply. She emphasized that AI is particularly useful in vocational education, helping students work with foreign-language study materials and find additional information.
The program has also developed an application called ITI, which does not provide ready-made answers but instead guides students step by step toward finding solutions themselves. This year the app will be adapted for vocational education and extended to basic school teachers as well — teachers of grades five through nine will be able to join the training programs and gain access to the tools.
Basic school students must wait for research results
However, basic school students will have to wait before using the ITI application — first, results are needed from a University of Tartu study examining how artificial intelligence affects the learning process at the basic school level. Indrek Lillemägi, director of Pelgulinna State Gymnasium, stressed that when working with younger students it is especially important to build a trusting and safe learning environment. Students should not feel they need to hide their AI use, and teachers should openly discuss the topic with them so that, despite technological change, learning can remain a human process.
