Career guidance in the era of life-long learning faces challenges related to building accessible services that bridge education and employment services. So far, only limited research has been conducted on using artificial intelligence to support guidance across higher education and working life. This paper reports on development on using artificial intelligence to support and further career guidance in higher education institutions. Results from focus groups, scenario work and practical trials are presented, mapping requirements and possibilities for using artificial intelligence in career guidance from the viewpoints of students, guidance staff and institutions. The findings indicate potential value and functions as well as drivers and barriers for adopting artificial intelligence in career guidance to support higher education and life-long learning. The authors conceptualize different modes of agency and maturity levels for the involvement of artificial intelligence in guidance processes based on the results. Recommended future research topics in the area of artificially enhanced guidance services include agency in guidance interaction, developing guidance data ecosystem and ethical issues.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to design a rubric instrument for assessing oral presentation performance in higher education and to test its validity with an expert group. Design/methodology/approach: This study, using mixed methods, focusses on: designing a rubric by identifying assessment instruments in previous presentation research and implementing essential design characteristics in a preliminary developed rubric; and testing the validity of the constructed instrument with an expert group of higher educational professionals (n=38). Findings: The result of this study is a validated rubric instrument consisting of 11 presentation criteria, their related levels in performance, and a five-point scoring scale. These adopted criteria correspond to the widely accepted main criteria for presentations, in both literature and educational practice, regarding aspects as content of the presentation, structure of the presentation, interaction with the audience and presentation delivery. Practical implications: Implications for the use of the rubric instrument in educational practice refer to the extent to which the identified criteria should be adapted to the requirements of presenting in a certain domain and whether the amount and complexity of the information in the rubric, as criteria, levels and scales, can be used in an adequate manner within formative assessment processes. Originality/value: This instrument offers the opportunity to formatively assess students’ oral presentation performance, since rubrics explicate criteria and expectations. Furthermore, such an instrument also facilitates feedback and self-assessment processes. Finally, the rubric, resulting from this study, could be used in future quasi-experimental studies to measure students’ development in presentation performance in a pre-and post-test situation.

In this article, we introduce an AI-enhanced study planning solution named Careerbot, which is a service designed to help students with their “forecasted self”. We define a new term “forecasted self” to mean a future-oriented digital twin, where a student can explore several future selves equipped with new, acquired skills for projected future jobs. The future jobs domain here includes knowledge-work related jobs related to digitalization, emerging technologies, and Industry 4.0/Society 5.0.