I teach BTEC Applied Science and Physics at BMet College Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield Campus. This term, alongside my regular timetable, I started running AI workshops for our students. The aim is simple: when these young people walk into a job interview in two or three years, they need to understand the tools that will be running half their working day.
Why this matters now
The students sitting in my classroom are going to graduate into a labour market where AI fluency is no longer optional. Employers are already rejecting CVs that show no awareness of AI tools. Recruitment platforms are filtering candidates on the basis of digital and AI-related skills. Yet most school and FE curricula in 2026 still treat AI as a future topic rather than a present one.
Further Education students are particularly exposed. Many are heading into vocational pathways, apprenticeships, and direct-to-employment routes where they'll be expected to use AI productively from day one, not study it in the abstract. If their teachers don't bring AI literacy into the room, the gap they walk into in a few years will be measurable, and it will affect their employability.
What the workshops cover
Each session is hands-on. I'm not giving lectures about AI ethics or showing students YouTube videos of ChatGPT writing essays. We do real work in the room: prompt construction, output evaluation, when to trust an AI answer and when to question it, how AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity actually decide which businesses to recommend, and what AI literacy actually looks like in a CV.
Most students arrive thinking they already know how to use AI because they've asked ChatGPT to help with homework. Within twenty minutes of structured work, they realise how much more there is to it. That gap between "I've used it" and "I can use it well" is the gap I'm trying to close.
Where this connects to AEO-REX
I founded AEO-REX in 2026 to help UK small businesses become visible inside AI search. The methodology I use with clients is built on the same evidence-based teaching approach I use at BMet: clear explanations, real examples, no jargon dressed up as expertise. Adults running businesses deserve the same clarity I give a sixteen year old in a science lab.
If you're an SME owner who wants to understand where you stand in AI search, the free AI Visibility Report gives you a real diagnostic in minutes. If you want to go deeper, Rex Commerce is the premium AEO-REX programme launching with a Q3 2026 cohort.
What's next for the BMet programme
The workshops are early-stage. As they develop through this term and the next, I'll be publishing what we learn here, including what works in the room, what doesn't, and what the students themselves say about how the sessions land. If you're another FE college, sixth form, or training provider considering similar work, I'm happy to share what I've built so far. The more young people we get genuinely AI-literate now, the better the next decade looks for everyone.
If their teachers don't bring AI literacy into the room, the gap they walk into in a few years will be measurable, and it will affect their employability.
Related reading: the April 2026 masterclass recap, and my origin story, from physics teacher to AEO founder.