Resources and guidance for Minnesota WBL teachers and programs.

Resources to support Minnesota Work-Based Learning (WBL) teachers from Minnesota CTE (MN CTE); Minnesota Department of Education (MDE); Minnesota Association for Career and Technical Education (MnACTE); and other state and national organizations.

General Resources

Teaching Resources

CTE WBL Resources

Funding and Grants

Program Approval

WBL Staff and Contacts

WBL Standards

CTE Curriculum Drive

Free curriculum developed by Minnesota CTE teachers, for Minnesota CTE teachers.

Other WBL Curricula

On-Demand Workshops

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WBL Frequently Asked Questions

Vocational Education (Vo-Ed) evolved into Career and Technical Education (CTE) in the 1990s and 2000s. The 2018 Perkins V Strengthening Career and Technical Education act definitively shifted Vocational Education to Career and Technical Education, dropping the word vocational from the act’s title. At a very superficial level, CTE and Vo-Ed look like they are the same thing, but philosophically they are fundamentally different. CTE provides students with experiences from career exploration and career development all the way to occupation-specific technical skills leading to careers that are high-skill, high-wage, and in-demand. CTE programs align secondary, postsecondary, business, and industry to create multiple opportunities in a career pathway. The philosophy of vocational education was to provide those very specific technical skills tracking towards a specific job right out of high school. References to vocational, Vo-Ed, or Voc-Ed are antiquated and conjure up an image that is not reflective of the vast array of today’s highly technical and in-demand careers.

Licensure Frequently Asked Questions

As a result of a legislative appropriation and funding from several grants, we are generally able to offer our program to candidates at no cost to them personally. There is a limited number of spaces based on this grant funding. Some Perkins consortia have also prioritized teacher recruitment and retention, a required component of their local plans, and may have funding to support these costs.

LCSC’s program is self-paced, not time-based, and takes candidates varying times based on backgrounds and experiences. Some candidates have been able to complete the stack of modules in as short of time as approximately six weeks, some candidates have taken much longer.

LCSC’s licensure program is an alternative teacher preparation program, which is defined in statute as a teacher preparation program based not in higher education. LCSC’s program is highly individualized. LCSC is most concerned about the application of the content and not simply the knowledge of it; which is atypical of most traditional teacher preparation experiences. This does take some getting used to for most candidates, but also provides for a rich learning experience in the end.

We do not award grades or academic credit. The program can take a year or less or several years, depending on the candidate.

LCSC’s program is all virtual and on-demand, except for any required field experiences, which must be school-based under Minnesota Rule. The field experience is job embedded and only in extreme circumstances would require the candidate to take time off their normal teaching duties. We offer some instructional components as in-person professional development as well, which can replace virtual components, but these are opt-in and for candidates who prefer in-person to online. In-person professional development is scheduled regionally across the state, based on demand.

A “CTE license” is a Minnesota teaching license in which the teacher has learned the foundational skills of career and technical education as well as the content and technical skills required for their curriculum. Technically, there is no specific statutory or rule language that refers to a license as a “CTE license;” however, there is language that indicates “appropriately licensed CTE teacher,” which is generally the same. It is also important to note that “CTE licenses” are a category of licenses, not a specific license. CTE licenses are content/career specific, for example agriculture, construction, medical. A full list of current CTE licenses is available here.

In current statute and rule, there is no reference to vocational certification or CTE certification. Vocational licenses have not been issued in Minnesota since 1999. Most people who hold an old vocational license have now retired, but those who have them are still able to renew them. The licenses were very specific to a skillset and aligned to a skilled trade. Minnesota only issues licenses and endorsements to licenses, not certifications. These terms often refer to licenses that are no longer available. To avoid confusion, these terms should not be used.

Mentoring Frequently Asked Questions

As a result of a legislative appropriation and funding from several grants, we are generally able to offer our program to candidates at no cost to them personally. There is a limited number of spaces based on this grant funding; if funding is exhausted, federal Perkins funding may be an option to support these costs.

CTE TIP includes two, 24 hour in-person conferences, one at the beginning of the program and one at the end. There are monthly, 1.5 hours online meetings that focus on just-in-time topics such as safety, grading, teaching methods, and funding. We also offer optional professional development workshops on special topics such as licensure and program requirements.

District mentoring programs may work well for academic content areas like mathematics or science—where there are competent and experienced mentors within the local district—but CTE teachers are often the only licensed teacher in their content area in the district. District-level mentoring programs simply do not provide teachers that are the only teacher at their school with their license (e.g., CTE, the arts, world languages) sufficient mentoring and resources they need to ensure success and student achievement. CTE teachers need a program that pairs them with regional mentors, statewide content experts, and other teachers who can share resources, curricula, and best practices that are relevant to their specific teaching assignment, in addition to a mentor at the local level for site level onboarding.

Mentors are current educators with successful teaching experience, a reputation as an effective mentor, and are eager and willing to support other teachers. Many mentors in our program have worked with us for several years, and some are part TIP participants themselves who have come back to help others.

Our licensure programs are technically separate from the Teacher Induction Program (TIP), but staff work in both. We commonly work to support TIP participants with licensure as they move from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and eventually Tier 3. Participants commonly advance one tier per school year during TIP.