Career and Technical Educationfocuses on preparing youth and youngadults to be college and career ready.Specifically, CTE works to equip stu-dents with core-academic skills, employ-ability skills, and job-specific skills.

One of CTE’s main objectives isto prepare tomorrow’s workforce tomake a positive impact on the U.S. econ-omy. CTE helps students to understandthat their work in the classroom directlycorrelates to success in their future pro-fession.

“CTE allows students to get acontextual learning method. They learnto find solutions to problems. They bet-ter understand the importance of whatthey are learning,” says Dr. EdwardSmith, Chief of Program Administration,U.S. Department of Vocational andAdult Education.

CTE courses are broken downinto 16 categories, called “Career Clus-ters.” These Career Clusters include ar-eas such as agriculture, businessmanagement, marketing, technology, andmanufacturing.

CTE is made available through anumber of outlets: middle schools, highschools, technical centers, and postsec-ondary institutions. In fact, nearly 16million students participate in CTE

Career and Technical Education:Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders

� Nearly 16 million students

take CTE courses every

school year.

� Nearly every high school

students takes at least one

CTE course.

� One of CTE’s main objectives

is to positively impact the

U.S. economy.

� CTE is federally funded by

the Carl D. Perkins Act, which

is currently appropriated at

$1.1 billion.

� There are 10 CTSOs.

� Over 1.5 million students hold

membership in CTSOs each

year.

Important Factsabout CTE and CTSOs

courses each year. Furthermore, nearlyevery high school student takes at leastone CTE course.

On the federal level, CTE pro-grams are funded by the Carl D. PerkinsAct. This act currently appropriates $1.1billion per fiscal year to be shared amongstates.

Career and Technical StudentOrganizations (CTSOs) are an instru-mental part of CTE programs. The U.S.Department of Education recognizes 10organizations as CTSOs. These organi-zations provide students the opportunityto apply what they have learned in theclassroom to real-world situations.

Over 1.5 million students holdmembership in CTSOs each school year.

“I think CTSOs are incrediblyimportant. They are a prerequisite to asuccessful career,” says Glenn Thomp-son, Co– Chair of the CongressionalCTE Caucus. “Being involved inCTSOs helps students to learn aboutpublic policy, leadership, and careerfields. They also make it easy for stu-dents to link to other people and makeconnections.”

Clearly, CTE and CTSOs aregrowing, becoming increasingly prevalentand important in the world of education.

College and Career Ready Students

Career and Technical Education