The growing increase in the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into industrial and technical work environments has created an urgent demand for ethically literate graduates capable of navigating AI-related challenges in professional practice. Notwithstanding this growing imperative, AI ethics education remains largely absent from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) curricula in Nigerian universities. Hence, this has left a critical gap between graduate competencies and evolving industry expectations. This study therefore investigated undergraduate TVET students’ awareness and understanding of AI ethics in South-East Nigerian universities, and examined the extent to which existing TVET curricula address these competencies. Guided by three research questions, a descriptive survey research design was adopted, with data collected from 350 undergraduate TVET students selected through stratified random sampling across five federal universities in South-East Nigeria. A validated structured questionnaire was used as the primary data collection instrument. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Findings revealed significant deficiencies in students’ AI ethics awareness, with an overall mean rating of M = 2.18 and a near-total absence of AI Ethics content within current TVET curricula, with an overall mean rating of M = 1.87. This study contributes empirical evidence to the under-represented intersection of AI ethics and technical teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It therefore concluded that undergraduate TVET students in South-East Nigerian federal universities currently possess inadequate AI ethics competencies across the cognitive dimensions of awareness, and that this inadequacy is structurally attributable to the near-total absence of AI ethics content from existing TVET curriculum frameworks. The study recommended, among other things, that a curriculum infusion strategy through which AI ethics themes are systematically embedded across existing TVET course units, such as Technical Drawing, Workshop Technology, Electrical Installation, and Building Technology, should be adopted. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Technical