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Home > ACTE Career Readiness Series

Ensuring students are “college- and career-ready” has become a critical issue as concerns rise about the success of the U.S. education system and, ultimately, the country’s economic competitiveness. The discussion surrounding college readiness is generally limited to academic skills, but actual career readiness requires an even more rigorous blend of academic, technical and employability skills, and the ability to apply these skills in authentic environments. The series below outlines these skill requirements and explores how elements of the CTE system can contribute to students' overall career readiness.

What Is "Career Ready"?
April 2010
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Listen to a teleconference that highlights the key areas of the paper and includes speakers from business and postsecondary education.

ACTE released this paper to broaden the national discussion around the term "career readiness" and increase the recognition of the broad range of skills students need to succeed in 21st-century careers. The paper outlines three broad sets of skills students need to be career-ready—core academic skills, employability skills and technical skills. The subsequent papers in this series all address how aspects of high-quality CTE programs help to ensure all students are career-ready.

Expanding Career Readiness Through Career and Technical Student Organizations
June 2011
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This paper explores how career and technical student organizations enhance students' career readiness through diverse programming that is designed to enhance classroom instruction and four common organizational goals: leadership development; academic and career achievement; professional development; and community service.

Expanding Career Readiness Through Online Learning
November 2010
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This paper explores how online learning is being employed to ensure students have access to high-quality CTE programs and the necessary academic, technical and employability skills to be successful in 21st century careers.