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.
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, business and marketing, family and consumer sciences, health science, and trade and industry.
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.
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 and Technical Education (CTE) organizes the 16 federally defined career clusters, each composed of several career pathways, into six 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: graphic design careers exist in both business and marketing, as well as trade and industry fields; hospitality is in both business as well as family and consumer science; 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.
Generally, these six career fields found on Minnesota’s Career Wheel align with five licensure fields that comprise Minnesota’s CTE licenses (the arts, communications, and information technology career field is split between business and trades). The agriculture, business, and family and consumer sciences licenses are broad-based licenses including all pathways within their licensure and career fields, while the trade and industry field is divided into four career-specific licenses, and health science education has just one license. Each of the career-specific licenses are generally connected to a pathway or cluster of pathways found within the larger career fields.
