Career and Technical Education (CTE)
Since 1917 with the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, federal and state legislation have provided leadership for the implementation and improvement of educational programs that prepare youth for careers and vocations, and advancing our economy and society.
Just as there are three domains of learning, the foundation of any successful CTE program is based on three inseparable, equal, and interdependent components: classroom instruction, work-based learning, and social-emotional learning/leadership.
Academic Classroom & Laboratory
Cognitive Knowledge
Rigorous Instruction
Career and Technical Education (CTE) prepares students for high wage, high skill, and in demand jobs and careers. CTE integrates science, math, economics, and art graduation credit, while earning college credits and industry certifications. CTE students in Minnesota are significantly more likely to graduate from high school than their non-CTE peers.
CTE includes courses in agriculture and energy/natural resources, business and marketing, family and consumer sciences, health/human services, and trade and industry.
Technical Work-Based Learning
Psychomotor Skills
Relevant Experience
Students learn best by doing. A work-based learning (WBL) project is an extension of the classroom, where students develop specific technical and career knowledge that prepares them for their future.
A WBL experience is different than academic instruction and is often more relevant. WBL includes internships, entrepreneurship, research, service learning, apprenticeship, and school-based enterprises. Many schools offer WBL courses, historically known as On-the-Job Training (OJT) or Work Experience.
CTSOs & Leadership
Affective Dispositions
Relationships & Social Skills
Leadership is a skill and it can be taught. In CTE students learn and practice leadership and social-emotional learning in programs called CTE Student Organizations (CTSO).
CTSOs are not clubs. They are an intracurricular (i.e., within the curriculum) and integral (i.e., necessary, essential) part of the program. CTSOs develop relationship and career skills through leadership conferences and conventions, career development competitions, service, and more.
Minnesota Career Fields
Minnesota Career and Technical Education organizes the 14 federally defined career clusters—each composed of several career pathways—into five career fields.
It is important to note that there is overlap between many of the licenses and career fields, depending on the skill being taught and the context of the career. For example: veterinary medicine is both an agricultural career and a health science career; welding exists in both industrial and agricultural fields. A license can often teach content in more than one career field, and skills and specific courses are found within several licenses depending upon the career application.
There are five career fields found in the federal Career Wheel which comprise Minnesota’s CTE licenses. The agriculture and energy/natural resources, business and marketing, and family and consumer sciences fields have broad-based licenses including all pathways within their licensure and career fields, in addition to career-specific licenses, while the trade and industry field is divided into three career-specific licenses, and health/human services education has several licenses. Each of the career-specific licenses are generally connected to a pathway or sub-cluster within the larger career fields.
Minnesota CTE Licensure Fields
Integrated CTE Curricular Components
The career-specific licenses include the CTE Core Skills requirement to address the philosophy and program management aspects of CTE, including the integrated CTE curricular components below, while these concepts are embedded in the broad-based agriculture, business, and FCS licenses. Work-Based Learning (WBL) and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)/Leadership are not full licensure areas, rather they are “center of the wheel” essential elements of a CTE program. Minnesota has a WBL endorsement-160000 that can be applied to a CTE license.
Districts with CTE Programs
