Career and Technical Education

What is career and technical education (CTE)?
CTE uses the context of ‘careers’ to make learning more relevant. It integrates academic coursework with career awareness and exploration, occupational training, and work-based learning. It connects a student’s education more closely with his/her individual interests, and prepares them for a wide range of careers that require varying degrees of education, from high school to postsecondary certificates to two-and four-year college degrees.

Where is career and technical education offered?
In middle school, high schools, two-year community and technical colleges, and other postsecondary schools.

What subject areas does CTE cover?
Most high schools and skill centers have a wide sampling of courses. Those most commonly associated with CTE are:

• Agriculture (careers related to food and fiber production and agribusiness)
• Business (accounting, business administration, management, information technology and entrepreneurship)
• Family and Consumer Sciences (culinary arts, family management and life skills
• Health Occupations (nursing, dental, and medical technicians)
• Marketing (management, entrepreneurship, merchandising and retail)
• Technology (transportation, manufacturing, electronics, communications, aviation, biotechnology, technical computer graphics, construction, etc.)
• Trade & Industrial (skilled trades such as automotive technician, carpenter, and computer numerical control technician)

What are the benefits of CTE?
CTE benefits students directly by providing earning advantages both before and after graduation.

• In 2002 in Washington State,

• The median annual earnings for a person with a high school diploma was $30,000, for a person without $17,000.
• The median hourly wages for a high school graduate was $14.93 compared to $9.24 for a dropout.
• It provides indirect benefit by increasing student engagement, retention, and persistence, and directing them to postsecondary education and lifelong learning.
• ”Students are more willing to make persistent efforts in their learning when they believe their schoolwork is important. The degree of importance they attribute to their schoolwork is linked to their interests, relevance to work in the real world, their friends’ and parents’ perceptions of learning as valuable, and the enthusiasm and engagement of their teachers.” (“Promising Programs and Practices for Dropout Preventions”, 2005:cited Murphy, Beck, Crawford, Hodges & McGaughy, 2001).
• It motivates students by engaging them in problem-solving activities.
• It offers students the opportunity to interact with the community, potential employers, and other students who share similar career interests. 

Which students benefit most from CTE?
Every student benefits. CTE provides opportunities for students to apply their learning in relevant, real world situations and helps them see the connections to their own futures. Through internships and other cooperative work experiences, they get a head start on a career. Student career organizations for every subject area also help students acquire the employability and leadership skills that will enable them to succeed in the workplace. And Tech Prep programs link high school and community college curricula to help students make a smooth transition to postsecondary education and careers.

According to U.S. Department of Education-Office of Vocational and Adult Education, one-third of college students are involved in career and technical programs, and as many as 40 million adults engage in short-term postsecondary occupational training.

How does CTE fit with academic preparation?
CTE is a ‘connector’ between academics and the world outside the classroom. This link is missing for many teens and their academic performance often suffers as a result. Research indicates that nationally 80 percent of high school students take at least one occupationally specific CTE course, and one in eight academic students take more CTE courses than do CTE-only students. Moreover, CTE students are often in the top five percent of their class. In the 2000 All-American Vocational Student Awards, for example, the median grade point of students competing was 3.35. CTE classes now are attracting the best and brightest because they give students a jump-start towards their chosen career.

How many CTE students are there in Washington State?
In 2004, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, there were 165,895 students in grades 9-12 enrolled in CTE classes.

• CTE enrollment by sex:
• Female: 78,762
• Male: 87,121
• CTE enrollment by race
• Asians/Pacific Islanders: 12,066 (7%)
• African American: 8,007 (5%)
• Hispanic: 15,676 (9%)
• Native American: 4,108 (2.6%)
• White: 125,993 (76%)

Q: Is there any proof that CTE works?
A: Yes, according to many state and local studies. In Washington State, those who complete a CTE program are expected to earn almost $60,000 more by the time they are 65 than those who have not participated in CTE. In Ohio, a recent large-scale study of 13,000 Ohio vocational education graduates found that seven years after high school, the vocational graduates earned significantly more than a comparable group of non-vocational graduates, and the earnings gap between the two groups appeared to widen with time.