Career and Technical Education (CTE) prepares students for careers and college by combining hands-on learning, workplace skills, industry partnerships, and exposure to emerging technology.
February is CTE month, a time to celebrate the value of Career and Technical Education in preparing students for high-wage, high-demand careers. Today, 11.2 million students nationwide are involved in CTE programs across the country. Here are 6 reasons why every student will benefit from enrolling in CTE courses, along with the stories of schools who are getting it right:
The “C” of Career and Technical Education is a huge differentiator for the typical secondary school experience. Woven into these programs are the fundamental workplace skills students will need to succeed in their careers. Time management, dressing for the job, written and verbal communication, project management, teamwork, problem-solving and collaboration are just a few of the skills CTE students learn that others might not get in their traditional academic courses.
The Michigan Career and Technical Institute (MCTI) is a one-year program for learners with barriers to employment to come learn technical and workplace skills that will kickstart a great career. But it’s not just the state-of-the-art industrial technology labs that make MCTI a great place to learn.
The program treats the classroom like a job site. Students are expected to arrive on time, punch in and out, and wear the uniform of the MCTI polo and jeans. They’re expected to conduct themselves with the attitudes and behaviors they’ll maintain on the job.
As a result, MCTI students leave the program with a combination of technical skills and workplace skills that set them apart from other candidates for high-demand positions.
At its core, CTE is designed to mirror the kinds of technologies, skills and experiences students will encounter in various careers. The programs that find ways to partner with local businesses are often more industry-relevant. They’re more in-tune with the modern workplace and will align their learning outcomes to meet the needs of their employer partners.
New Berlin Eisenhower High School is a great example of this. In an effort to revitalize their CTE program, they brought dozens of local employers together in listening sessions to understand the workforce needs in the region. It also gave them insight into modern technologies they could mirror in the classroom. Those listening sessions turned into strong local support in the form of financial donations, guest speakers, plant tours and more.
With a classroom of new equipment and the backing of these organizations, Eisenhower launched their aptly-named “How Machines Work” course, which drew so many students the first year they had to expand into several course sections as the program grew. Students learn foundational manufacturing skills – everything from measurement and shop math to hand tools and basic power tools – then progress into mechatronics, industrial controls and industrial robotics.
That level of industry-relevant exposure helped a group of high school students win a statewide industrial robotics competition. One of those competitors – Aren Schiek – also spent time working for a local advanced manufacturing company, where he got to apply his skills in an authentic industrial setting.
Studies show that a student’s own interests in experiences in middle and high school are a stronger determinant of what career path they’ll end up on, even more influential than parents, friends, teachers and social media.
Students CTE classes give students a hands-on experience in many of these fields, like engineering, manufacturing, automotive, welding, culinary arts, marketing, business, teaching, nursing and so much more. In many cases, that hands-on learning can spark an interest a student didn’t realize they had. In other cases, they learn early on what they’re not interested in (which is just as important).
At Pathways High School, juniors and seniors participate in an independent study program where they pursue a topic of interest in great depth, doing research, building a project, and presenting it to a review board.
Junior Miles Meaux discovered a passion in video game design. Throughout his project, he learned how to code and build video games. He enjoyed it so much, he actually launched a multi-developer project to build a mod of a popular video game. At 16 years old, Miles was leading a team of coders from across the country to work together on the game.
The experience inspired him to want to launch his own game design company in the future. These are the experiences that might not be possible without Career and Technical Education.
CTE is all about hands-on, career-connected learning. Does that mean all students who take CTE courses end up going direct-to-work or to a community or technical college after high school?
Certainly not!
That’s a misconception about CTE – that it’s just for a certain population of students – that we want to dispel. University-bound students benefit greatly from taking CTE courses in high school. It’s a both/and.
In fact, when university students have a background in CTE, they often have a context for their university coursework that gives them an advantage over their peers.
Take this trio of students from Plymouth High School for example. Jacob Ashworth, Kyle Kraus, and Alex Oty all took CTE course work in high school. They competed in the SkillsUSA industrial robotics competition. They spent lunch breaks and mornings in the lab learning how to program their robot and integrate it with other technologies.
After graduating high school, all three students pursued engineering and computer science degrees at well-known universities. After a single semester at college, they were astounded at how much more they knew than their peers. All the calculus and advanced physics couldn’t compare to the application of math & science the group had in their CTE courses. Not only did they know the information, they knew why it mattered, how it applies in the real world. That’s what CTE can do for any student.
Today, all three are into their careers as mechanical engineers, computer scientists, and even a Starship engineer!
It’s no secret that not every learner learns the same way. But the traditional sit-and-get model of education only serves a small portion of students who thrive in a classroom of lectures and memorization.
CTE is, at its core, hands-on, applied and career-relevant. It can engage a much broader population of students, especially those who ask, “when am I ever going to use this?”
Students at the Northview Next Career Center experience this firsthand. For many of them, school was always a struggle. But going to the Career Center gave them an opportunity to learn in a new way – one that captured their interest, allowed them to pursue their passions and even get a sense of what they want to do for a career.
“99% of our students come here because they want to work with their hands. They’re not four-year university students. They’re looking to either go right into the workforce or go into a trade school or maybe get an associate’s degree,” the Center’s Director, Drew Klopcic said.
In one program, students are taking manufacturing courses, getting exposure to real-world industrial technology, earning industry-recognized certifications from the Smart Automation Certification Alliance, building their resumes, and even working with local businesses that support the program.
While Northview Next is specifically designed as an alternative learning school for students who struggle at the academic high school, there’s no doubt that all students can benefit from hands-on, career-connected learning.
Imagine going to school and getting to fly drones, program industrial robots, build AI systems, work on smart manufacturing systems, and operate a fleet of self-driving cars? That’s what modern Career and Technical Education programs look like.
For students who want to take a break from the textbooks and Chromebooks and dive into emerging technology for a few hours a day, CTE is a great fit.
Whitehall School District’s Emerging Technologies Laboratory is a great example of a space where students take charge of their learning and get to independently explore cutting-edge tech. Students explore robotics, automation, applied AI, 3D scanning and 3D printing, drones, coding, and cutting-edge technologies while teachers act as facilitators.
Curiosity sparks innovation here, and these students are prepared to go into their post-secondary journey – whether higher education or direct to workforce – with knowledge and experience in futuristic systems.
Few other experiences in a high schooler’s journey will give them the opportunity to work with advanced technologies the way a modern CTE program does.
Career and Technical Education is no longer a niche pathway or an alternative option. It’s a core strategy for preparing students for what comes next. Whether a student plans to enter the workforce, attend a technical college, or pursue a four-year degree, CTE provides context, relevance, and real skills that traditional coursework alone often cannot. The schools highlighted here prove that when CTE is treated as rigorous, modern, and career-connected, students don’t just stay engaged, they leave better prepared for work, further education, and a rapidly changing economy.
During CTE Month, the takeaway is simple: every student benefits when hands-on learning, industry relevance, and emerging technology are part of the educational experience.
