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 (academic knowledge), work-based learning (technical skills), and career and technical student organizations (professional attitudes/leadership).
Classroom & Laboratory
Cognitive, Academic 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, healthcare, hospitality, education, entertainment, manufacturing, construction, finance, digital technology, and more.
Work-Based Learning
Psychomotor, Technical 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.
WBL 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.
CTE Student Organizations
Affective, Prof. Attitudes & Leadership
Relationships & Social Skills
Leadership is a skill and it can be taught. In CTE students learn and practice leadership and professionalism 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 healthcare career; welding exists in both manufacturing 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. Of the five CTE career fields, three fields—cultivating resources; investing in the future; and creating & experiencing—have broad-based licenses including all clusters within their area, in addition to cluster “careers” licenses found within those fields, such as hospitality, digital/communications technology, and creative design (design/entertainment). The other two fields—building & moving and caring for communities—do not have a broad-based license, but have careers licenses for most of their clusters. Additionally, there are “pathways” licenses for any areas that do not have a careers or broad-based field license, such as law enforcement/public safety and cosmetology/personal care. Overall, some of the 14 clusters do not yet have a specific careers license, but all clusters fit within one of the CTE licenses, either broad-based, a cluster-specific careers license, or a pathways license.
Minnesota CTE Licensure Fields
Career Ready Practices: 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 Career Ready Practices below, while these concepts are embedded in the broad-based agriculture, business, and family & consumer sciences licenses. Technical Work-Based Learning (WBL) and Professional Attitudes/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
Note: Some districts may by missing if they failed to submit statutorily required data to the state during STAR reporting.
