When SunEd High School first introduced CTeLearning curricula to its classrooms in 2022, school leadership set out with a clear purpose: empower non-traditional learners with hands-on technical skills that yield real-world outcomes. Operating public charter high school campuses in Florida—including locations in Margate, Fort Lauderdale, and Hollywood—SunEd High specifically serves students for whom traditional high school models may not be the best fit. Instead of earning GEDs, SunEd students work toward full high school diplomas alongside workforce-ready industry credentials.
Building the Blueprint: How Early Tech Pathways Set the Stage
Under the leadership of
Director of Education at SunEd High Schools Tammy Lara, SunEd High vetted and adopted CTeLearning pathways in
Web Design,
Web Animation, and
Game Design. Dedicated educators like Karimah Grayson and Ian Buniao demonstrated how project-based learning could transform student confidence. In those computer labs, students experienced the immediate excitement of seeing initial HTML code rendered in a browser, building digital portfolios that reflected their individual personalities.
That underlying culture of hands-on problem solving set the perfect foundation for SunEd High's next major milestone. SunEd High made district history by becoming the very first campus to see students earn CTeLearning's
AI for the Workplace micro-credential. That initial pilot cohort achieved an outstanding 94% pass rate across a variety of hardware devices. More importantly, the pilot proved that high school students could master generative artificial intelligence as an ethical, professional tool rather than treating it merely as a shortcut (scroll to the end of this article for videos of Ian talking with students who have earned the AI for the Workplace certification).
Today, SunEd High is taking that proof of concept to an unprecedented scale across its network of high school campuses. Between 400 and 700 students across multiple SunEd High School campuses in the district are expected to take the AI for the Workplace course this year. Through this massive district-wide expansion, these students will have the opportunity to earn an industry-recognized micro-credential issued in partnership with
Web Professionals Global, the leading international association for web and digital professionals. This initiative represents a total shift from an experimental single-classroom pilot to a core multi-campus educational strategy, signaling precisely where modern workforce readiness is heading.
From Pilot to Platform: What Made Rapid Multi-Campus Expansion Possible
Scaling an intensive career-tech program from a single classroom section to several hundred students across multiple high school campuses within a single academic year is a monumental task. Most districts attempting a rapid multi-school rollout run into a formidable barrier: the nationwide shortage of specialized CTE instructors. Schools often find it difficult to recruit enough domain experts to staff multiple campuses and meet soaring student demand.
SunEd High's seamless transition from a single-campus pilot to all three of their charter schools in Broward County demonstrates that this barrier can be completely bypassed. By pairing motivated educators across different high school sites with CTeLearning's turnkey course architecture, the district established a framework built for rapid, uncompromised scale. Four key structural elements made this multi-campus expansion possible:
- Any Teacher Can Lead and Succeed: CTeLearning's AI for the Workplace curriculum is fully auto-graded, turn-key, and expert-supported. Instructors do not need advanced computer science degrees to facilitate the course effectively. Business teachers, CTE generalists, and elective educators across different high schools can step into the classroom and guide students without undergoing months of professional development. Giving up to 700 students across multiple campuses access to the course simply requires opening additional class sections with existing faculty rather than searching for new specialist hires for every site.
- Dynamic, Live-Updated Curriculum: The landscape of artificial intelligence moves at a fast pace. Industry standards, large language models, and workplace expectations evolve constantly. CTeLearning continuously updates its curriculum in real time to reflect shifts in technology and industry best practices. As a result, course sections taught across various district high schools in the fall remain entirely relevant through the spring semester, guaranteeing that every student is trained on contemporary tools.
- Seamless Integration into Existing Infrastructure: Expanding a course across multiple high school campuses can create severe resource bottlenecks if specialized equipment is required. Because CTeLearning's platform runs flawlessly in any web browser across desktop computers, laptops, and Chromebooks, SunEd High integrated the certification directly into standard class periods and existing computer labs at each campus without purchasing proprietary hardware.
Why SunEd High's Blueprint Matters for Districts Nationwide
SunEd High's journey offers actionable insights for school administrators, CTE directors, and curriculum specialists evaluating artificial intelligence in career pathways:
- Multi-Campus Scale Does Not Depend on Specialist Hires: The ongoing shortage of technical teachers often halts innovative programs. SunEd proved that turnkey, expert-supported coursework empowers existing faculty across multiple high schools to deliver high-level technical certifications quickly.
- Student and Counselor Demand Drives Organic Growth: The jump from a single pilot cohort to as many as 700 students across multiple campuses reflects genuine, bottom-up enthusiasm. When students experience practical, engaging learning, word spreads quickly between peers and campuses, encouraging guidance counselors across the district to actively guide more sections onto the master schedule.
- Verifiable Industry Micro-Credentials Deliver Resume Value: Employers across every sector are seeking entry-level talent who understand how to leverage AI responsibly and productively. Earning an industry-recognized certification backed by Web Professionals Global gives SunEd graduates from every campus a tangible, verifiable asset to showcase on resumes, digital portfolios, and college applications. Through this course, students also have the opportunity to earn an Ethics in the Workplace certification.
- District-Wide Rollouts Provide Replicable Proof of Concept: Implementing a certification across multiple high school campuses gives surrounding public school districts concrete operational data regarding staffing, budget, pass rates, and student engagement across diverse learning environments. SunEd's success gives district decision-makers a clear, risk-mitigated model to replicate across high schools region-wide.
Looking Ahead: The New Standard for Career Readiness
AI literacy is no longer a futuristic concept or an elective luxury—it has rapidly become table stakes for modern career readiness. In ZipRecruiter’s 2026 AI Employer Report (survey of 1,000+ hiring managers), 74% see AI skills as a strong advantage or outright requirement for at least some roles, and 13% require them for all roles. About half expect candidates to already be practical or advanced users. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say AI is changing the skills they seek, with rising importance for workflow automation, data analysis, AI governance, and human skills like critical thinking, judgment, and creativity.
While AI technical skills are in high demand, they aren't a complete substitute for human capability—in fact, employers value soft skills now more than ever. A recent 2026 survey of over 600 employers revealed that interpersonal abilities, willingness to learn, dependability, professionalism, and adaptability consistently rank above pure technical know-how when evaluating recent graduates and early-career hires. The consensus among hiring managers is clear: while AI tools and technical workflows can be trained on the job, foundational human qualities and growth mindset are far harder to teach. CTeLearning's AI for the Workplace course is explicitly built around this reality—using hands-on prompt engineering and real-world scenarios to directly reinforce critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and workplace communication alongside digital literacy.
SunEd High School's evolution—from building student confidence in foundational web design to leading Florida in multi-campus AI certification—illustrates the transformative power of adaptable CTE programs. By equipping up to 700 students across its high schools with critical thinking, ethical guidelines, practical prompt engineering tools, and verifiable Web Professionals Global credentials, SunEd is ensuring its graduates enter the workforce not just with a diploma, but as capable, confident, and highly hireable professionals ready for today's job market.
Read our article from this past April on SunEd
and scroll down to hear from students in Ian's classroom.
Want to bring AI for the Workplace certification to your district?
Contact our team today to learn how the course works and discover what it takes to launch or scale an AI certification program at your school.
