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“Career and Technical Education (CTE) is for students who aren’t college-bound.”

“CTE isn’t really education, it’s job training.”

“CTE is training for entry-level job skills, not for post-secondary education.”

The list of misperceptions could continue to go on – and we all have heard them.

In an educational world in which college and career readiness is at the forefront of determining the success of not only students, but also school districts as a whole, I am here to tell you that CTE is at the HEART of preparing young minds to be college and career ready.  Despite the multitude of misperceptions and myths, it is through intentional, career-focused program development that CTE can offer the 21st century student a jump start towards his/her future like no other educational initiative around today.

In order for CTE buildings to truly capture the power behind helping students prepare for their post-secondary plans, it is essential that college and career readiness is approached using a systemic, data-driven program that is student-centered and is grounded on the concept of equity and access for ALL students.  When this systemic approach is done accurately, a culture and climate of college/career readiness begins to develop so that helping students successfully navigate their future career goals becomes the standard mode of operation for everyone involved.

Opportunities are constantly being created in CTE to put today’s students in a position to get a head start on their college and career preparation.  This preparation emphasizes all aspects of student success because the technical skills are just as important to understand as the soft skills, and the resume-building is just as an important first step as the interview preparation, and the experience that comes with on-the-job training is just as important as the network that is developed through these experiences.  Again, the list could go on and on.

Through a CTE college/career readiness approach we have students who will graduate high school with college credits and/or degrees.  We have students who will earn certifications that will allow them to instantly be employed so they can work while attending college classes.  We have students who will gain real-life experiences through work-based opportunities that will develop their network and appreciation for their future profession.  These are just some of the educational trends that will have the biggest impact on 21st century students.

The opportunities that CTE can now offer students has changed the face of education.  Seniors are graduating high school with degrees, certifications and experiences that are going to better prepare them for their post-secondary plans because they have already started developing their career paths with potentially less debt, and more experience.  By offering these opportunities, many students who once felt as though they were not college material come to realize that they are capable of earning a college certification or degree.  This change in mindset is just the beginning of how 21st century students will begin to view, and approach, education differently.

Terri Tchorzynski
2017 National School Counselor of the Year
Calhoun Area Career Center
Battle Creek, MI

As the successor to No Child Left Behind begins its march through public education, it will create many ways for “real-world” skills to be integrated into all classrooms. The Every Students Succeeds Act, better known as ‘ESSA,’ provides opportunity for classrooms to incorporate 21st century skills into the daily curriculum. Doing so will help create more robust and workplace-proficient students, and it is a welcome academic reform.

With such a push to integrate 21st century skills in the classroom, some teachers might feel that they must change what they teach to accomplish this goal. I argue that they simply need to look to where the content they teach will ultimately take a student, and use industry’s approaches to those skills to find the best way to guide learning. This could be accomplished by reaching out to local businesses or CTE teachers to see how the performance of the ‘4 Cs’ are measured by employers. The ‘4 (or 5) Cs’ of 21st century skills are creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration (with the addition of culture, connectivity or climate often making an appearance.)

The education and business worlds are constantly trying to reinvent themselves to gain traction in some direction. The major difference between the two worlds is that businesses aim to succeed financially for their stakeholders’ gain and education institutions are measured by the academic success of their students. There is a shift taking place in many school districts across the nation in which student academic success is directly aligned –through business partnerships, advisory boards, business councils and chambers of commerce – to financial outcomes for cities or regions.

In the years to come, look for more businesses to be a part of meetings about curriculum development, project–based learning experiences, teacher externships and CTE class integration into school systems. They realize the power in creating a pipeline for impassioned students who have the skills that would be most beneficial outside of academia.

This shift will be the driving force forward for teachers who search for how to use the Cs of 21st century skills in their classrooms.

By Adam Guidry, Lead Teacher
Academy of Environmental and Urban Planning
Glencliff High School, Nashville, TN

The best way educators in CTE fields can demonstrate career connections to students in/outside the classroom is to get students to industry and industry to students. Instructors need to provide job shadowing opportunities to CTE students, and business owners/employees need to be solicited by instructors to come in and be visible in the shops and classrooms. Networking needs to be strong in terms of internships and work–based learning opportunities that are offered to students. By actually connecting our students with real, tangible opportunities in their chosen fields, we demonstrate career connections in real time, allowing students to explore, build, decide, and experience.

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Employability and marketability – those are the two next big trends in college and career readiness, and our 21st century learners, whether they are college bound or career bound, will benefit immensely by being well versed in both. Students need to be employable, not just in terms of their trade–related skill set, but also in terms of the intangibles like work ethic, punctuality, professionalism, and workplace etiquette. Students also need to be marketable, both applying to colleges and applying to jobs, because the applicant pool is stronger now in the 21st century more than ever. Thousands of applicants all share the same admirable resume fluff – community service, computer proficiency, strong GPAs – and the question the students need to ask themselves is: what makes you more marketable than your competition vying for the same spot you are? What sets you apart? My advice: start early and build a professional portfolio that highlights what you can actually produce, not just who you are on paper.

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I didn’t know what I wanted to do career–wise until my second semester of my freshman year in college. Truth be told, I went to college to play basketball on scholarship, not to figure out what career I’d have afterwards; heck, I didn’t even like school, but it was my vehicle to college hoops. I realized what I wanted to do when one of my English/Poetry professors pointed out that I was linguistically skilled and should pursue a literature degree (who, me?? I didn’t even like to read). I realized that up to that point I had been so athletic and sports minded, that I completely overlooked the gift I had with the English language. So, I took the two things I knew best: Coaching/athletics, and English, and I landed on teaching/education. Ten plus years later, I sit as one of the youngest High School Assistant Principals in the state of Connecticut, all because an instructor dared to pull out of me what I had failed for years to pull out of myself. The takeaway is this – don’t pigeonhole yourself into a single definition or a single talent. View yourself as a multitude in and of itself, a myriad skillset with talent that is forever untapped. Listen to those around you – your coaches, peers, instructors, friends and parents – listen to what they see in you, and capitalize on what you already know. The combination is a winning mentality that only results in success.

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Jayme Beckham
Assistant Principal
Henry Abbott Technical High School
Danbury, CT 06811

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The 2014 Minnesota Legislature adopted language requiring Minnesota school districts to assist all students no later than grade nine to develop a Personal Learning Plan leading to a “smooth and successful transition to postsecondary education or employment.” Recognizing that many teaching professionals are not well equipped to provide learners with guidance about the opportunities available across the career spectrum, the Advancing Career Development project provided a way to introduce a cadre of teaching/counseling professionals to career knowledge through guided work-site experiences so that they could help other education professionals and students to understand the breadth of career opportunities available. The project recognized Minnesota’s Perkins consortia, a unique-in-the-nation structure of secondary schools and 2-year postsecondary institutions, as an appropriate vehicle to give leadership to this effort. Minnesota’s Perkins consortia, in collaboration with state leadership, have developed excellent tools to help guide career development of secondary learners, including the Minnesota Clusters >amp; Pathways Framework (the career wheel) that organizes careers into a structure of six career fields, sixteen career clusters and seventy-nine career pathways; the spectrum of work-based learning opportunities that diagrams the variety of worksite learning experiences ranging from field trips to youth apprenticeships; and other planning tools to assist in the implementation of the Personal Learning Plan legislation.

The Advancing Career Development project provided work-site experiences for groups of career and technical education (CTE) teachers and counselors from each of three Perkins consortia to improve the education professionals’ understanding of opportunities for future careers so that they may provide better guidance to students in their preparation of Personal Learning Plans. Participating teachers/counselors took part in professional development around implementation of the personal learning plan legislation, the career development spectrum, the six career fields, and an array of postsecondary/certificate options, followed by site visits of regional business/industries representing the six career fields.

Teachers/counselors were selected by the leadership of three participating Perkins consortia. Participating teachers were teachers of career and technical education for, while these individuals hold knowledge of careers within their own fields of expertise and also generally understand all aspects of the industry for which they are preparing students, they sometimes lack the broader understanding of careers across the six career fields. The training provided helped them to be able to transfer their knowledge of all aspects of industry to multiple industry sectors. Participating counselors have a solid background in the career development process, but may lack information about the world of work outside of education. Teachers/counselors participated in an introductory session pertaining to the personal learning plan requirement, career development spectrum and career fields held at a union training facility; at least five visits to business/industry settings (one for each career field: agriculture, food, and natural resources; arts, communications and information systems; engineering, manufacturing and technology; health science; human services; business, management and administration), and a follow-up session to guide development of a local implementation plan. A full day was required for the initial session, while other sessions were generally for a half-day with participants completing additional assignments on their own time.

A website was developed to contain necessary materials for the project as well as be a repository for assignments completed by participants. The website held background information on the project as well as the sponsoring organizations – the Citizens League of Minnesota and the Jay >amp; Rose Phillips Family Foundation; held career development materials and information on the state’s career fields; gave links to career videos and other useful documents; gave information about the guiding state statute and other pertinent legislation; held information on experiential learning and the spectrum of work-based learning opportunities; and held all instructional materials used within the project for participant review. Business/industry partners were also surveyed to gauge their satisfaction with the activity.

Daniel Smith, CTE Consultant, Retired from the Minnesota Department of Education

I am passionate about giving students an opportunity to learn about a career before they pursue it. Students need opportunities to see, feel, hear and touch a career. Opportunities such as field trips, job shadowing, internships and apprenticeships are instrumental to career investigation and exploration. I would like to share my journey and the reason that I have become so zealous.

The summer before my freshman school year, I broke my arm at camp. I was taken to the hospital and had my arm x-rayed and casted. That became the first step in pursing my career choice of radiologic technology. My parents asked me two important questions: 1) What is the salary? And 2) Are there jobs available? I felt quite confident that I would be able to find a job and make an adequate salary in this career field.

I was so excited when I was accepted into the X-Ray program at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. Many of my friends inquired, “Why aren’t you pursing nursing?” I informed them that “I did not want a job that required giving shots or enemas.” Unfortunately, without researching this chosen career, I found out that the two main exams of an X-ray tech were IVPs (shots) and barium enemas. I was now going to do the two things that I did not want to do as a nurse.>#0160; Boy, it would have been so helpful to spend time observing at a hospital to learn more about my chosen field of study. >#0160;

After completing a year in the radiologic technology program, I accepted defeat and withdrew from my studies. Now what? I decided to review the career interest inventory that I took in high school. This inventory basically told me that I had no interest in health careers. My focus should be on business, management, education and training. I refocused my energy to focus on business management and to eventually become a business teacher.

I truly love my profession. I have owned my own business, been a teacher, a counselor, a school-to-work coordinator, career counselor and now an education specialist for CTE and College and Career Readiness. I want students to have every opportunity to pursue their passions and gain the real world experiences that will help them find a career that they love. Learning what you don’t like is as powerful as discovering what you do.

Christine Holecek
Region IV, VP (elect)
Education Service Center Region 12
Education Specialist, CTE and College >amp; Career Readiness

My name is Courtney Benjamin and I teach Automotive Technology to high school seniors at Broome-Tioga BOCES in Binghamton, NY. >#0160;Some people reading my name and job title in text assume that I am a man; I get a lot of “Dear Mr. Benjamin” emails! >#0160;I am indeed a woman and I have embraced a gender non-traditional technical field since I was a CTE student myself in high school in the very same program that I now teach. >#0160;

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Since high school I have earned a BS Degree in Automotive Technology and an MS Degree in Education and have also worked at various levels of the automotive industry ranging from service technician to manufacturer’s rep. >#0160;My interest in CTE/STEM and education does not stop there: I am currently a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Theory and Practice at the State University of New York at Binghamton. >#0160;My dissertation is probing postsecondary schooling and labor market outcomes for students that were CTE concentrators in high school using a nationally representative data set. >#0160;I am also looking at outcomes for students that were involved in work-based learning programs.

Much to the credit of the technical knowledge that I have amassed through my experiences as a CTE student and teacher, I have managed to teach myself to script a complex statistical programming language called ‘R’ to quantitatively analyze this complex survey data about CTE student outcomes. >#0160;In my opinion, one of the most effective ways to involve more gender non-traditional students in CTE and STEM is to showcase successful gender non-traditional teachers and industry professionals as well as provide related mentorship opportunities for students in middle school and elementary school. >#0160;

We also need to focus on changing societal perceptions of traditional gender roles as the family exerts the greatest influence over the career path of students. >#0160;Another aspect of teaching CTE and STEM that I feel is critically important to student outcomes is work-based learning. >#0160;My Automotive Technology program is located at Gault Toyota, a local car dealership. >#0160;There is no way to match real-world learning and experiences students get through work-based learning, especially the affective skills. >#0160;We need to get more aspects of CTE programs located in actual work settings.

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Courtney Benjamin

Broome-Tioga BOCES

Automotive Technology II Teacher

Located at Gault Toyota

Doctoral Candidate-Educational Theory >amp; Practice

State University of New York at Binghamton

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Life choices aside, the following story shows how some students’ ingenuity knows no bounds.

Maria became pregnant at the beginning of her freshman year. She had recently joined the academy and was eager to begin her exposure to Architecture, but the dream of one day becoming a professional started to slip away. I have seen many students in similar situations and dropping out is the usual outcome. This is where Maria’s story differs.

In December, Maria went to her counselor and discussed the possibilities of her high school future; later that same day she found out that she would have twins.  With the news of children and her bleak academic forecast, she started thinking of a way to succeed.

She first asked to enroll in virtual school during after school hours in order to take some of next year’s courses over the summer and stay on time to graduate. She then proceeded to seek guidance from others who had similar experiences, and what they offered was a world of support in the form of a local mother’s group which gave her diapers, baby clothes, bottles, formula and much more. The emotional support and materials eased the forthcoming financial stress.

Fast forward a few months and she has the twins, is living with another single mother from the local group, is taking classes online, and is getting ready for the upcoming semester. This is when I meet Maria. On the first day of school, she is the first one in class and asks me what my class will do for her career. Not what are we going to do in the class but what will my class do in preparing her to become an architect. The conversation went on until I had convinced her that she would gain valuable career related skills, have opportunities to build relationships with business partners, and earn an industry certification.

Now, nearly two months into school, she is a part of the ACE mentoring club, has an A in my class, is taking two classes online because she only attends half a day during school hours and is always the first person to class with a smile on her face. I do not know if the other students know her story or not, but whenever I ask the students to be problem solvers and never give up, it never fails that her ingenuity and drive is the first thing that comes to my mind.

The hardest problem to solve for some of our students is how to get to school enough to succeed with all that is going on in their lives, and I am truly impressed by their solutions.

By Adam Guidry, Lead Teacher, Academy of Environmental and Urban Planning, Glencliff High School, Nashville, TN

Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, Arizona recently expanded its Project Lead the Way (PTLW) Certified Biomedical Sciences Program.>#0160; This innovative program provides students with opportunities to experience real-world medical challenges before they graduate from high school. Working with the same tools used by professionals in hospitals and labs, students engage in compelling hands-on activities and collaborate to find solutions to various problems. Because of the coursework, students graduate with in-demand knowledge and skills they will use long after high school and can apply what they have learned to any career path they pursue. Kim Rodgers, the class instructor, stated “This is our fifth year of the program and it is continuing to grow. We now have 150 students enrolled, which incorporates all grade levels. I would like to see more students complete the full four year program and have the opportunity to develop more community partnerships. Hopefully, this will aide in the offering of internships for students so they can better prepare for college and more competitive professions.”

In the introductory course of the PLTW Biomedical Sciences program, students explore concepts of biology and medicine as a way to determine the factors that led to the death of a fictional person. While investigating and processing the case, students examine autopsy reports, investigate medical history and explore medical treatments that might have prolonged the person’s life.>#0160; The activities and projects introduce students to human physiology, basic anatomy, medicine, and research processes while simultaneously allowing them to design their own experiments to solve problems.

Rodgers works with personnel from the Glendale Police Department, specifically the school resource officer (SRO) Sargent Scott Waite and Detective Mark Coyle. Both Sargent Waite and Detective Coyle spoke to her students about the procedures involved when assessing a crime scene. Following these presentations, students gained hands-on experience by rotating through stations where they analyzed various pieces of evidence from the crime scene. Students collected blood and hair samples, ran fingerprint comparisons, analyzed DNA, and ran field tests to determine if drugs were involved in the crime.

Senior student, Aaron Combs, is in his fourth year of the program. Combs stated, “Each year has a different focus and because of this I am now very interested in the field. The biomedical program allows someone to experience the field even if they are not initially interested, but once in the program they will gain something out of it. Mountain Ridge High School is the only school in the Deer Valley Unified School District that offers this program.”

By allowing students the opportunity to use project-based learning, collaborate with peers, integrate technology, and apply coursework to real-world situations, Mountain Ridge High School students are better prepared to excel in a competitive global arena after they graduate. The school is located at 22800 N. 67^th Avenue in Glendale.>#0160; To find out more about this extraordinary school, visit the website at http://www.dvusd.org/Domain/41

By Debbie Moore CTE, Career and Technical Education Marketing Educator/Teacher on Assignment Mountain Ridge High School, Glendale, AZ

“Make. Just make. This is the key. The world is a better place as a participatory sport. Being creative, the act of creating and making, is actually fundamental to what it means to be human.” >#0160;>#0160;>#0160;

~ Maker-Movement Manifesto

This quote is one that always seems to resonate with my CTE beliefs. It is in CTE that students are presented an opportunity to actively engage with their teachers, peers and community to ‘make’ business and industry practices, procedures, processes, and conceptual understandings clearer for present and future sustainability.>#0160; This sustainability impacts the global economy, so just ‘make’.

A recent graduate from CTE shared a story about his experience and his ability to create (make) things he never imagined or believed he could. The student started CTE in 10^th grade; he had no true ambitions or interest in the CTE pathway in which he was enrolled. Then one day, he was required to pitch his business plan and in that moment his life changed forever. His imagination and creativity allowed him to create a gaming app for autistic students to calm their anxiety of test taking. See, he wanted his brother to enjoy and find passion in learning as well.>#0160; He said, “Why ‘make’ learning or even test-taking such a uncomfortable experience? I am okay with hard work but why did school always feel like if I didn’t do it the prescribed way, I failed or wouldn’t ‘make’ it?” As I listened, I didn’t have the answer but what I did have was inspiration and hope.

This is just one student in CTE but as they share their stories with us, collectively we have thousands who were able to take the skills and concepts learned, make business plans or inventions, and turn them into ‘their’ reality. He was able to visualize what he could do and become. This student now has a “choice-filled life” where he is able to ‘make’ critical decisions about his business and future, but more importantly how he will impact the world.

We have an intentional and purposeful commitment in CTE. >#0160;Allow CTE students to dream, build, create (make) and explore being innovators, problem-solvers and entrepreneurs. The global workforce is waiting on them, which is a CTE MATTER!

Eboni Camille Chillis, PhD
Coordinator of Career, Technical >amp; Agricultural Education
Clayton County Public Schools

The assignment was for the students to find a problem on campus and design a solution for it. I have always been an advocate of inquiry-based learning and this assignment was completely aligned with that. When students started reporting what problems they wanted to solve on campus, I noticed many of the same ideas. The need for more sidewalks on campus, moving the student parking closer to the school, and adding a stoplight at the closest intersection to the back of the school were among the most cited. Then Steven asked if he could redesign the baseball field, if you could call it that, to address a few issues and seek a grant for the redesign. I was all ears.

Steven went on to explain how the field had no accessible water – potable or otherwise – bleachers, canopies for shade, dugouts or way to bring equipment to the field other than by foot. I told him that his group would have their work cut out for them, and they began their research. His team originally consisted of 3 other classmates, but in the 2 weeks they had to develop their solutions, the group dwindled to just Steven and one other student, who was added to the class the day before the presentation.

Steven and his partner had created a detailed design that included all of the following: old pallet materials to make a roof structure that would be fastened to the existing fenced-in benches, a rain collection system that included roof drains into barrels and a water runoff collection point with a perforated pipe running along the sloped visitor side with a small cistern with a manual pump, and an entrance to the field created by using old playground rubber chips that would be wide enough for a car to drive on to move some donated bleachers to the field.

His presentation included: a budget for materials and labor, a construction timeline, both a virtual 3D model and a 3D printed model and the start of an application for a grant through a local non-profit. After Steven finished his presentation, which was the first one of the day, the other teams asked for more time to work on theirs. He had not only succeeded in solving this problem in an ingenuous way but he also raised the bar for the rest of the students in the class.

I later used Steven’s presentation as a marketing tool for middle schoolers choosing what school they want to attend. So, in a way, he is still solving problems many years after his graduation because his creative designs are laying a path for future students to follow.

By Adam Guidry, Lead Teacher, Academy of Environmental and Urban Planning, Glencliff High School, Nashville, TN