Career and Technical Education (CTE)

What is Career and Technical Education?

CTE is an educational model that aligns secondary and postsecondary education to labor market demand, and provides students with the technical, academic and employability knowledge and skills they need for success.  Put simply, CTE prepares students for careers of their choice. (National Association of State Directors of CTE Consortium—NASDCTEc)

What is the Purpose of Career and Technical Education?

• Educate students for a range of career options through 16 Career Clusters® and over 79 pathways-Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE)
• Fulfill employer needs in high-skill, high-wage, high-demand areas-ACTE
• Prepare students to be college- and career-ready by providing core academic skills, employability skills and technical, job  specific skills-ACTE
• Help students identify and prepare for careers that they have always wanted or perhaps never even realized were available to them-ACTE
• Ensure a dynamic workforce by fully developing every student’s career and academic potential-Arizona Department of Education CTE Vision
• Prepare Arizona students for workforce success and continuous learning-ADE CTE Mission
• Provide applied learning opportunities that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills, occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of an industry, including entrepreneurship of an individual-[Carl D. Perkins Act of 2006, Section 3(5)]

The Facts

• CTE leads to few dropouts
• CTE creates personalized pathways to success
• CTE integrates business and industry perspectives
• CTE trains students for high-growth industries
• CTE introduces students to the world of work
• CTE closes the skills gap
• CTE allows professionals to advance
• CTE represents a positive net investment for society
• There is public demand for CTE