CTE Terms & Acronyms

Learn the definitions of key terms in CTE.

• Advisory Board/Committee: A group of industry professionals providing input on CTE program quality, alignment and relevance.
• Advance CTE: A national nonprofit organization representing state CTE leaders.
• Area Technical Center: A CTE-focused institution that serves learners from across multiple geographies, such as schools, school districts, educational service areas, and workforce development areas or regions. These public institutions offer secondary and/or sub-baccalaureate education and training and can serve secondary learners, postsecondary learners or both.
• Articulation Agreement: A formal agreement allowing students to earn postsecondary credit for high school coursework. Similar to a credit transfer agreement.
• Career Cluster: The National Career Clusters^® Framework, developed by Advance CTE, serves as a guiding organizational structure for careers by knowledge, skills and interests. Current Clusters include Construction; Arts, Design & Entertainment; Public Service & Safety; and more.
• Career Pathway: A term defined in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act that includes a combination of rigorous and high-quality education, training and other services to help an individual succeed.
• Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA): Perkins V requires eligible recipients to conduct an in-depth evaluation including reviews of program quality, student performance and program alignment to the labor market in order to receive funding.
• Concurrent/Dual Enrollment: A partnership between high schools and postsecondary institutions that allows students to take college-level courses and earn both high school and college credit simultaneously.
• CTE Concentrator: A student who has completed multiple courses/credits in one CTE program area.
• CTE Participant: A student who has completed at least one CTE course in a single CTE program area but has not yet met the threshold to be considered a concentrator.
• Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO): These intracurricular organizations provide CTE students with opportunities for career exploration and leadership skill development and incorporate competitive events that let students practice technical skills, employability skills and more.
• Eligible Recipient: A school district or institution, or a consortium of districts or institutions, eligible to receive funding through the federal Perkins CTE Act.
• Employability Skills: Essential cross-cutting or soft skills needed in any workplace, such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, time management, professionalism, and adaptability; often integrated into CTE programs and CTSO activities.
• ACTE Quality CTE Program of Study Framework: An evidence-based framework and self-evaluation developed by ACTE to define high-quality CTE. With more than 90 criteria organized under 12 elements, the Framework captures the full range of activities across a CTE program of study.
• Individual Learning Plan (ILP): A process and a tool to help students define their college and career goals. ILPs may contain course schedules and transcripts, strength and interest assessments, career and education plans, a portfolio and more. Also known as a personalized graduation plan or individual career and academic plan (ICAP).
• Industry-recognized Credential: An employer-recognized qualification showing mastery of career-related skills, including industry certifications, licenses, Registered Apprenticeship certificates  badges.
• Labor Market Information (LMI): Data about employment trends, wages and demand for specific occupations.
• Local Application: The plan that eligible recipients must submit to receive Perkins funding, developed with stakeholder input, that describes how the recipient intends to spend the funds. The application must be based on the findings of the CLNA.
• Non-traditional Fields: Fields in which individuals from one gender comprise less than 25% of those employed, such as men in nursing or women in welding.
• Perkins V: The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, reauthorized most recently in 2018 as the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, and the primary federal law impacting CTE.
• Performance/Accountability Indicators: Measures of CTE program effectiveness required to be reported by recipients of Perkins V funding.
• Program of Study (POS): Defined in Perkins V as a coordinated, nonduplicative sequence of academic and technical content at the secondary and postsecondary level. It incorporates challenging State academic standards; addresses both academic and technical knowledge and skills, including employability skills; is aligned with the needs of industries in the economy of the State, region, Tribal community, or local area; progresses in specificity (beginning with all aspects of an industry or career cluster and leading to more occupation-specific instruction); has multiple entry and exit points that incorporate credentialing; and culminates in the attainment of a recognized postsecondary credential.
• Recognized Postsecondary Credential: Defined in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act as a credential, including an industry-recognized certificate or certification, a certificate of completion of an apprenticeship, a license recognized by the state or federal government, or an associate or baccalaureate degree.
• Special Populations: Learner groups identified in Perkins V for required and permissible uses of funding and required reporting for accountability. They include individuals with disabilities; individuals from economically disadvantaged families; individuals preparing for non-traditional fields; single parents (including pregnant and parenting learners); out-of-workforce individuals; English learners; homeless individuals; youth in or who have aged out of foster care; and youth with a parent in the armed forces and on active duty.
• Stackable Credentials: A stackable credential is one of a sequence of non-duplicative credentials that build on each other to advance an individual’s qualifications and help them progress along a career and/or education pathway. Valuable credentials are also portable, meaning recognized and accepted in different settings.
• State Plan: A four-year plan submitted by each state seeking Perkins grant funding, developed with stakeholder input, that describes how the state will distribute funding to local recipients and spend the portion of the allocation it’s permitted to keep on the state level for state leadership and administrative funding.
• Work-Based Learning (WBL): Experiential learning that occurs at a worksite, on campus or through simulated experiences and incorporates interactions with industry or community professionals. WBL should be aligned to the curriculum and occurs on a continuum, ranging from short-term experiences like workplace tours and guest speakers to more sustained activities like internships and apprenticeships.