A Guide to Modern Career and Technical Education
What’s New in K-12 CTE
Career and Technical Education (CTE) has transformed in the past few decades — it’s for all students, inclusive of pathways that include college, career, apprenticeships, and more. No longer deemed only an alternative to higher education, districts are using CTE to empower students to make informed decisions about their future and graduate prepared to succeed.
Here’s what you need to know about modern career and technical education:
It’s for everyone.
Not long ago, the academic community considered vocational–technical courses as a pathway for students not on a college track. Now, CTE is for all students, regardless of their post-high school pathways. In response to a rapidly changing workforce and academic landscape, modern CTE is designed to prepare students for careers that may not even exist yet. U.S. bill Perkins V, which provides approximately 1.4 billion dollars in annual funding for CTE, focuses on making CTE accessible and meaningful for historically underserved populations, requiring that districts “continually make meaningful progress toward improving the performance” of students with disabilities, low-income and homeless students, English learners, and more.
It’s about soft skills.
Soft skills — also known as interpersonal skills or employability skills — are increasingly valued by employers. Skills like communication, problem-solving, creativity, time management, and listening are a natural fit for CTE courses, which, when designed purposefully, can provide students with authentic opportunities to practice soft skills alongside career exploration activities or while acquiring content-area knowledge.
For more on the importance of soft skills in CTE, hear from Pat Keeney, Director of CTE at McGraw Hill:
It should start in middle school.
Offering CTE career exploration courses in middle school gives students more opportunities to practice soft skills (right when they’re developmentally primed to learn them), exposes students to a variety of careers, and empowers them to make informed decisions about class selection or internships in high school.
For more on what to look for in a middle school CTE curriculum, see:
It’s growing.
In 2021–2022, there were 8,151,708 secondary CTE participants nationwide— a 6.8% increase from 2007–2008. Some districts are having a hard time keeping up with the demand: 1/3 of public schools that reported CTE teacher vacancies in 2020–2021 found those vacancies very difficult to fill or were not able to fill them. State governments across the U.S. are dedicating millions in resources to support schools’ CTE growth and partnering with local businesses to create innovative school-to-workforce pipelines.
It works.
This data story from the U.S. Department of Education explores the impact of CTE courses on students’ high school graduation rates, levels of educational attainment, employment status, and earnings. Across the board, results are encouraging: “Eight years after their expected graduation date, students who focused on career and technical education (CTE) courses while in high school had higher median annual earnings than students who did not focus on CTE.” In this data story, focusing on CTE refers to “CTE concentrators,” or students who earned two or more credits within a single program of study. It’s clear that when students have the knowledge, tools, and opportunity to pursue a CTE pathway, they reap the rewards for years to come.
It’s most effective alongside a strong curriculum.
At McGraw Hill, our approach to CTE is evolving, too. Our courses are designed to boost motivation and engagement, provide plenty of opportunities for authentic soft-skills practice, and meet the needs of any classroom with flexible, turnkey materials.
For more on the purpose of modern CTE, who takes CTE courses and who teaches them, and for a deeper dive into our approach to K-12 CTE, see our new guide:
