Career and Technical Education: Shaping the Future Workforce

Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a dynamic and evolving field that plays a crucial role in preparing students for both postsecondary education and the demands of the modern workforce. CTE encompasses a wide array of courses and programs designed to equip individuals with the technical skills and practical knowledge necessary for specific jobs or fields of work. It emphasizes hands-on experience, application-based learning, and the development of skills that are directly transferable to the workplace.

What is Career and Technical Education?

Many people remain unsure of what exactly "career and technical education" is. CTE is primarily taught in three settings: middle school, high school, and post-secondary institutions. CTE courses generally are designed to teach technical skills that can lead to further postsecondary education or employment, and to help produce skilled workers to meet industry needs. In practice, schools may have various other objectives when offering CTE courses.

First, CTE is focused on developing skills. Practice, hands-on experience, and application tests make up the bulk of CTE. After all, many CTE pathways take students to careers that can save lives. Second, CTE is applicable to almost every educational age range. For this reason, you’ll find CTE clusters and pathways offered in middle schools, high schools, and post-secondary institutions. At the same time, CTE clusters don’t limit students to single careers. Typically, these qualities are at opposite ends of the education spectrum.

The Breadth of CTE: 15 Industry Sectors

CTE is organized around 15 industry sectors, each with its own set of curriculum standards developed by the California Department of Education (CDE). These standards are aligned with the state’s academic content standards in English language arts, math, and science to prepare students for postsecondary education and employment. The CTE curriculum standards are aligned with the state’s academic content standards in English language arts, math, and science to prepare students for postsecondary education and employment. For example, the model curriculum for courses in architectural design is structured to prepare students to write informative texts in a way that is aligned with the state’s writing standards in English language arts. Each industry sector has between three and seven different pathways. For example, the business and finance sector has three recognized career pathways: business management, financial services, and international business.

Here's an overview of some key CTE clusters:

Health Science: Health science is the largest CTE cluster and one of the most popular today. A growing population an increased and consistent demand for health science professionals means that learners in this career cluster have abundant opportunities for engaging careers in a variety of pathways. Many of these certifications are administered by the National Healthcareer Association (NHA), which has become one of a handful of distinguished healthcare certifiers.
Business Education: Business education courses are among the most common in CTE because of their versatility. Students in this CTE cluster cultivate skills that will help them work in all three of these business areas. Learners in this cluster gain a strong foundation in understanding cash, revenue, expenditures, profit margins, and other principles of money management. Because finance is a highly-competitive field, advanced degrees help students stand out among their peers.
Information Technology (IT): Plus, IT graduates walk straight into one of the most lucrative and high-demand job markets in the world.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Occupations involving engineering, design, and computer-based machinery often require a background in STEM. Graduates in STEM also have a high earning potential, especially if they pursue a baccalaureate or advanced degree in a field like engineering.
Manufacturing: Manufacturing has remained a major career cluster in CTE because the processes and products of manufacturing drive industries throughout the global economy.
Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics: Trucking, shipping, and storage all fall under the umbrella of this CTE specialty. CTE students in transportation, distribution, and logistics develop skills that are difficult to find in today's job market.
Hospitality and Tourism: Pursuing careers in hospitality and tourism is especially valuable for students who want the versatility to work in a variety of locations or on nontraditional schedules.
Government and Public Administration: Typically, that means CTE students learn about issues related to local governments, such as taxes, parks and recreation, budgeting, and city councils. While government careers can be lucrative, it's important to remember that even at the local level many public careers involve elected positions.
Law and Public Safety: This CTE cluster is well-known both for its profitability and ability to consistently provide opportunities to graduates. This cluster is an excellent starting place for anyone looking to get more involved in law, and it pays well enough to keep additional education on the table.
Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR): This allows graduates to pursue a wide range of careers within the eight different AFNR career pathways. The number of organizations offering certifications is an example of the varied paths students can choose within the AFNR cluster.
Human Services: Typically, these needs revolve around some element that’s lacking in a person’s life. Social work, social services, and drug rehabilitation all fall under this umbrella. While human services careers frequently pay less than those in other CTE clusters, human services offers rewarding career opportunities that directly affect the lives of individuals and communities.
Architecture and Construction: Students focusing on architecture can be involved in the process of designing buildings and other structures, and may consider postsecondary instruction leading to a degree in architecture. With experience in this CTE cluster, students will be prepared for these two sides of construction industry.
Education and Training: Careers in this pathway can include anything from on-the-job training to consulting. As a result, students in this field can take the knowledge they've learned virtually anywhere there is a need for teaching and training and have transferrable skills. By learning training and educational principles, they can become excellent teachers - even if they’re teaching new hires at a company.
Arts, Media, and Entertainment: While this could mean drawing, painting, or composing for some students, this CTE cluster is more concerned with operating the technology that makes those products possible. That’s why so many of these students go on to audio engineering, lighting technology, and similar careers. As technology evolves, these skills remain in demand to ensure that technical aspects of concerts, sports, and other events run smoothly.

CTE Course Design and Career Pathways

CTE Courses Are Designed Around Career Pathways. CDE has adopted pathway standards for 58 career pathways that fall under the 15 industry sectors. The pathway standards are each organized around a career focus and a sequence of learning to best meet the local demands of business and industry. These pathways also can serve as a way to transition into higher education. Students in the financial services career pathway will take a sequence of courses that can translate to employment after graduation in jobs such as bookkeeper or accounting clerk. Students can also further pursue their pathway by completing additional postsecondary coursework. With additional coursework at a community college, students can obtain a certificate or associate’s degree that would prepare them for jobs such as auditing clerk or associate financial advisor. With a bachelor’s degree, students would be prepared for jobs such as a financial analyst or could pursue a certified public accountant license.

CTE in Practice: From Middle School to Post-Secondary

There is often a great degree of variation in the clusters and pathways an individual CTE program offers. It's also popular for CTE programs to offer clusters and pathways with versatile opportunities for students, such as business education or STEM. In addition, what programs a school offers can also vary by location.

Middle school CTE classes tend to focus on developing general workplace skills, such as computer applications or career exploration. CTE in high school is also taught as an elective, but courses are often offered in greater variety. At the high school level, students typically pursue a pathway of courses within a single cluster like business or STEM. Often, these courses culminate in certifications by the end of a student's senior year. The career pathways at post-secondary institutions take students from introduction straight through to employment. Still, taking CTE courses from a postsecondary school is a viable option for pursuing a technical education.

CTE and Academic Integration

Over the past decade, the state has increasingly focused on ensuring that students have both college and career options upon graduating from high school. As a result, many CTE courses have become integrated into high school students’ regular instructional curriculum. For example, a college‑bound student may take high school CTE courses such as engineering and graphic arts to satisfy A‑G course requirements. To teach core academic subjects in a more applied manner, students may learn math and science as part of a health occupations pathway. Additionally, CTE programs in middle school and earlier grades of high school may focus more on career exploration, while the later years of high school may focus more on providing more specialized instruction in a specific career pathway.

Dual Enrollment Opportunities

Students Can Take College‑Level CTE Courses Through Dual Enrollment. Dual enrollment courses are college‑level classes that may count toward both a high school diploma and a college degree. By graduating high school having already earned college credits, students can save money and accelerate progress toward a postsecondary degree or certificate. Some dual enrollment programs have a specific CTE focus as part of a career pathway that leads to a certificate or associate’s degree at the community college. Dual enrollment has various models. California’s two most widely used models are traditional dual enrollment and College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP). Traditional dual enrollment typically consists of individual high school students taking college‑level courses on a community college campus. CCAP, on the other hand, allows cohorts of high school students to take college‑level classes on a high school campus.

Funding CTE Programs

Schools Provide Career Technical Education (CTE) Programs for Students. Local governing boards determine the courses that they offer students. The specific offerings vary based on several factors, such as student interest and local workforce needs.

The primary source of funding for schools is the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Schools use LCFF to pay for most of their general operating expenses. This typically includes costs associated with CTE programs. For 2024‑25, the state is estimated to spend more than $79 billion on LCFF. The high school base LCFF funding rate per student is $12,144 in 2024‑25. This includes a 2.6 percent adjustment that was intended to acknowledge the cost of CTE programs when LCFF was enacted.

The state also provides roughly $500 million in ongoing funding specifically for CTE, primarily from two competitive grant programs. Additionally, in recent years, the state has provided almost $1 billion in total one‑time funding to support a variety of CTE initiatives. The vast majority of state funding targeted for CTE is provided through two programs: the CTE Incentive Grant (CTEIG) program, administered by CDE, and the K‑12 Strong Workforce Program (SWP), administered by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

CTE Teacher Statistics

In 2020-21, some 11 percent of all public school teachers of grades 9-12 taught CTE as their main teaching assignment (hereafter, “CTE teachers”). Compared with grade 9-12 public school teachers overall, a higher percentage of grade 9-12 public school CTE teachers had less than a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree and lower percentages had a master’s degree or an education specialist degree as their highest degree.

CTE Participation

Data from the 2019 NAEP HSTS provides insight into participation in CTE courses among 2019 high school graduates. In 2019, some 85 percent of high school graduates had taken any CTE courses in these 12 subject areas. In 2019, there were differences in CTE participation by high school graduates’ characteristics, such as sex and race/ethnicity, and school locale. Specifically, a higher percentage of male than of female high school graduates had taken any CTE course (87 vs. 82 percent). The percentage of high school graduates who had taken any CTE course was highest for those from schools in rural areas (92 percent) and towns (91 percent), followed by those from schools in suburban areas (83 percent), and lowest for those from schools in cities (80 percent). In 2019, the percentage of high school graduates who had taken any CTE course was lower for those who were Asian than for those of most other racial/ethnic groups. There was no measurable difference between the percentages of EL and non-EL high school graduates in 2019 who had taken any CTE course.

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Postsecondary CTE Outcomes

In 2021-22, a total of 1 million subbaccalaureate certificates and 1 million associate’s degrees were conferred in the United States. At both levels, the percentage of awards conferred in a CTE field decreased from 2011-12 to 2021-22 (from 94 to 85 percent of certificates and from 59 to 50 percent of associate’s degrees). Health sciences and business and marketing were the only CTE fields of study with over 100,000 awards conferred at both levels.

Among fall 2009 ninth-graders who graduated from public high schools by 2013 and who ever enrolled in postsecondary education, these data show that a higher percentage of CTE concentrators than nonconcentrators had received an associate’s degree as their highest postsecondary degree (14 vs. 9 percent). Conversely, a lower percentage of CTE concentrators than nonconcentrators had received a bachelor’s or higher degree as their highest postsecondary degree (48 vs.

Monitoring Progress and Future Directions

The state annually collects a variety of CTE‑related information from school districts, county offices of education (COEs), and charter schools. This includes course offerings and course completion. These data show a significant increase in the share of CTE courses that fulfill the college preparatory coursework required to be eligible for freshman admission at the state’s public universities. As part of the state’s school accountability system, the state tracks performance on the College and Career Indicator, which combines information about a student’s course completion and test scores to determine whether a student is prepared for college and career.

To the extent the Legislature wants to more closely monitor specific CTE outcomes, it could require that more detailed information be publicly reported. It also could require the collection of additional data that would help it monitor progress on key objectives. For example, the state could require district‑level reporting of data for students who complete CTE pathways.

The MA Program in CTE

Please note: The MA program in CTE is not designed to lead to teacher certification. For the 2025-2026 academic year, the CTE master's program will NOT admit students. CTE is an individualized, research-intensive program intended for students with prior professional experience and education. The program was designed for individuals with experience in schools or other educational settings (e.g. museums, community-based organizations, etc.) who are interested in furthering their ability to work at the intersection of theory and practice around issues of teaching, learning, curriculum, teacher education, and school reform. Students work closely with a faculty advisor to develop an individualized program of study that reflects the student’s particular interests. Students have ample opportunity to take courses both across the Graduate School of Education and the university at large.

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