CTE
What is CTE?
Career and technical education (CTE) is the practice of teaching skills-based careers to students in middle school, high school, and post-secondary institutions.
Who is CTE for?
Incoming High School freshmen and depending on the program of study, incoming 8th-grade students.
Why choose a CTE Program of Study when entering High School?
First, CTE is focused on skills. This differs from traditional and university-based education, which is based on theory.
CTE includes some theory, but that’s typically only seen in introductory materials.
Practice, hands-on experience, and application tests make up the bulk of CTE. This is important because CTE careers require workers to have experience in their field before starting a career.
After all, many CTE tracks take students to careers that can save lives. Health science, government, law, agriculture, and construction especially relate to others’ health and safety.
Because of that, CTE instructors often focus more on practice and improvement instead of textbook memorization.
Second, CTE is applicable to almost every educational age range. This is because students can understand fundamentals of any career as early as sixth grade, and they can build essential skills well into adulthood.
That’s why you’ll find CTE tracks offered in middle schools, high schools, and post-secondary institutions.
Then, students can earn the certifications they need to start their careers, many of which are currently in high demand.
At the same time, CTE tracks don’t limit students to single careers. In fact, many students use these courses as preparation before moving onto community college or university.
That gives CTE two advantages that you can’t find in many other education fields:
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CTE is highly-specific
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CTE is highly-versatile
Typically, these qualities are at opposite ends of the education spectrum. A teaching method is either general and versatile or specific and inflexible.