The Ultimate Guide to Trade and Vocational Schools

ACTE is the largest national nonprofit association dedicated to CTE professionals, including educators, administrators, career and guidance counselors, and others connected to the CTE community. Our role is to advance education that will prepare students of all ages for success in their careers, including through advocating for effective federal policy, building public awareness, and sharing best practices and resources with professionals in the field.

One thing that we are increasingly seeing is engagement among the employer community with CTE programs, because they recognize that these are a critical part of their efforts to bridge the skills gap. According to the ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey published in 2014, 25% of employers stated that the reason they could not fill existing job openings was a lack of applicants with necessary workplace competencies — things like teamwork, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving.

As employers realize that CTE programs can teach technical skills (which were also cited as a challenge among applicants) relevant to 21st century careers and that these employability skills are in high demand, I think we’re seeing a trend toward stronger partnerships forming across these two communities.

I’m glad this question was raised, because it is an important one. When many people hear about career and technical education (or vocational education), they often envision a dirty facility in the back of the school. CTE programs have made enormous strides to ensure relevancy and earn their place as a component of every student’s education, regardless of their background.

CTE engages students and gets them excited about learning, helps them apply their academics in a hands-on way, and lets them explore potential career interests so they can have a meaningful discussion with their parents and counselors about what postsecondary plans make the most sense for their chosen career field — whether that’s earning a two- or four-year degree, pursuing a different credential, or entering the workforce.

CTE provides a really unique way for students to apply their academic curriculum in the context of their career goal. So, a student who might struggle to conceptualize the slope of a line may find it easier when that’s the pitch of a roof. It engages students with relevant, real-world learning opportunities, which 81% of dropouts report would have kept them in high school. And it helps students to have productive dialogues with their families and career and guidance counselors about where they are going in their career path and what steps they need to take to get there.

About 6 out of 10 students in CTE programs report that they intend to continue in that career field, and the others are still gaining technical and employability training and readying themselves for their future.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of working with career and guidance counselors to make a plan for your education that includes CTE, no matter what your postsecondary plans are. There has been a great emphasis on spreading the message that CTE is for all students, and we’re seeing a stronger understanding of how it can fit into every educational experience.

I think the White House’s efforts are really getting at the need to overcome the skills gap, particularly in a lot of high-growth, critical industries that are instrumental in ensuring our continued economic growth and competitiveness. We’ve all heard the statistics about this, that middle-skill careers are growing and are a significant part of the economy.