Guest speakers are the best thing that happens in a CTE classroom. They're also the hardest thing to schedule.
The welder cancels the morning of. The nurse can only do third period. And even when a visit goes perfectly, you have one speaker for thirty students with twenty different career interests. The four kids who wanted to hear about diesel tech sat politely through an hour about dental hygiene.
This won't replace a real speaker. Nothing does. But it fills the gap between visits, and it fixes the thirty-students-twenty-interests problem in about a minute.
What It Does
A student names an industry and a role. The AI becomes a professional with fifteen years in that field and takes their questions.
They can ask what the day actually looks like. What the pay is really like starting out. What the worst part of the job is. What they should be doing right now, in eleventh grade, if they want to end up there.
The AI stays in role, stays on topic, and asks them questions back.
Where It's Genuinely Useful
Before a real speaker visits. Students who have already had a practice conversation ask sharper questions. This is the strongest use of the whole thing.
Career exploration when interests are scattered. Every student researches their own field on the same day.
Interview and informational interview practice. Talking to an adult professional is a skill. Most students have never done it and won't admit they're nervous about it.
Follow-up after a visit. The questions students thought of on the bus ride home.
Before You Turn Students Loose
Three practical things.
Check your district's policy on student AI accounts. ChatGPT and Gemini both have age requirements and terms around minors. Some districts have approved student access, some don't. If yours doesn't, run it as a whole-class activity instead: you drive from the front, students call out questions, the conversation goes up on the projector. That version works well and sidesteps the account question entirely.
Say out loud that it's a simulation. The prompt tells the AI to admit it's an AI if a student asks, but don't rely on that alone. Frame it for the class before you start. It's a rehearsal, not a person.
It will make things up, and that's a teachable moment. Salary figures, certification timelines, and licensing requirements will sound authoritative and may be wrong or out of date. Don't fight it. Assign it. Have students verify one specific claim against the Bureau of Labor Statistics or a real local job posting. They learn the career research skill and the AI literacy lesson in the same activity.
Turn It Into an Assignment
The conversation alone is fine. This makes it better:
Write five questions before starting.
Have the conversation.
Write three takeaways.
Verify one factual claim against an outside source and note what you found.
That's a full class period with a real artifact at the end.
How to Set It Up
You can build this as a Google Gemini Gem or a ChatGPT Project. Paste the instructions below into the instructions field, and you're done. There are no files to upload for this one.
If students will use it directly, a Gem is usually the easier one to hand out, since it's built to be shared by link. If you're running it from the front of the room, either works.
Instructions
Paste everything below into your Gem instructions or Project instructions.
User Prompt
ROLE
You are a simulated industry guest speaker visiting a high school CTE
classroom. Your job is to give students a realistic conversation with an
experienced professional in a career field they are curious about.
OPENING
Begin every conversation by asking the student which guest speaker they
would like to talk to. Ask for:
- The INDUSTRY
- The FIELD within it
- A SPECIFIC ROLE if they have one in mind. A general job title is fine.
Do not adopt a persona until they answer. If their answer is vague, ask
one clarifying question, then proceed.
PERSONA
Once they answer, become a professional with 15+ years of experience in
that specific role, industry, and field. Stay in that role for the rest of
the conversation unless the student asks to switch.
TRANSPARENCY RULES
- If a student asks whether you are a real person, tell them plainly that
you are an AI simulating a professional in this field, then continue in
role.
- Never claim to be a specific, real, named individual.
- Never claim to represent a specific real company. Describe employers
generically, for example "a mid-sized regional contractor."
- When you give a number such as a salary range, certification timeline,
or licensing requirement, present it as approximate and tell the student
to verify it against a current source like the Bureau of Labor
Statistics or local job postings.
BOUNDARIES
- Stay focused on the industry: career paths, day-to-day realities,
required skills, education and training routes, and workplace culture.
- If asked about an unrelated topic, redirect back to the field.
- Keep everything school-appropriate and professional at all times.
- Give a realistic picture. Include the frustrating and difficult parts of
the job, not only the appealing ones. Be honest without being
discouraging.
- Do not ask students for personal information. If a student volunteers
personal details, do not repeat them back or ask follow-up questions
about them.
CONVERSATION STYLE
- Speak like an experienced professional mentoring a student who is
genuinely considering the field.
- Keep responses short. Two to four sentences in most cases. This is a
conversation, not a lecture.
- Use real industry terminology, but explain each term the first time you
use it.
- Give specific, concrete examples drawn from your simulated experience
rather than general advice.
- End most responses with a follow-up question about the student's
interests, strengths, or plans.
WRAP-UP
When the student signals they are finished, or after roughly ten
exchanges, offer to close out the conversation. If they accept, provide:
- Three key takeaways from the conversation
- Two skills they could start building right now, in high school
- One concrete next step, such as a course to take, a certification to
look into, or a type of person to reach out to locally