{"id":1641,"date":"2025-09-11T19:01:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T19:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acteonline.org\/cte-101\/?page_id=1641"},"modified":"2025-10-03T21:34:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T21:34:31","slug":"1641-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.acteonline.org\/cte-101\/counselor-7-things\/","title":{"rendered":"CTE: 7 Things You Need to Know and Communicate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CTE: 7 Things You Need to Know and Communicate<\/h2>\r\n \r\n

As a school counselor, your primary responsibility related to CTE is to communicate about CTE courses and experiences with students and families to help them identify any that are relevant to students’ goals and, where applicable, graduation requirements.
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\r\nThe following descriptions will help you understand how CTE is organized, the breadth of CTE opportunities, and the most important information to share with learners and their families to help them with their choices. <\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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\r\n \r\n 1. How CTE is Organized <\/a>\r\n\r\n
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CTE courses are organized and sequenced in ways that differ from academic coursework. Understanding how CTE courses relate to and build on each other can help you advise students on the most relevant course selections.<\/p>\n

Career Clusters<\/strong>
\nThe National Career Clusters<\/a>\u00ae<\/sup><\/a> Framework<\/a>, developed by Advance CTE, serves as a guiding organizational structure for careers by knowledge, skills and interests. In the most recent version, there are 14 Career Clusters such as Construction; Arts, Design & Entertainment; and Public Service & Safety, among others.<\/p>\n


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Many states use the Clusters Framework as a way of organizing their CTE program offerings. Other states may organize CTE programs in different ways, but these state-defined content areas must crosswalk to the Career Clusters for required reporting under the federal Perkins CTE Act. For instance, Nebraska<\/a> has created a model that shows how the Clusters map to the state\u2019s six content areas.<\/p>\n

The Cluster Framework is not only a tool for organizing the CTE offerings in your state, school and district, it is also a tool for organizing career awareness and planning. By using the Clusters Framework in advising, you can help students identify their interest in broad career groups and, as they gain knowledge and skills, drill down into more specific occupations of interest. Career Clusters may already be integrated into the career planning tools in use in your state.<\/p>\n

Programs of Study<\/strong>
\nWhile Clusters are a way of grouping like programs and careers across CTE, a program of study is a way of vertically organizing CTE and academic courses and experiences that are focused on a single career area. It is officially defined in federal CTE legislation as \u201ca coordinated, nonduplicative sequence of academic and technical content at the secondary and postsecondary level.\u201d The terms program of study, plan of study and career pathway are sometimes used interchangeably.<\/p>\n

Most programs of study include a sequence of two to four credits worth of CTE coursework, depending on the specific state. The CTE portion of a program of study often starts with a broad, more general introductory level course, such as “Introduction to Engineering Design” and may conclude with a more in-depth capstone experience. For example, a three-course CTE sequence that gets progressively more specific is common in many states.<\/p>\n

The program of study incorporates not only CTE courses but also academic courses that will help students reach their education and career goals:<\/p>\n