What is CTE?

Career Technical Education.—means organized educational activities that:

  1. Offer a sequence of courses that:

    a. Provides individuals with coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging occupations or professions

    b. Provides technical skill proficiency, an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree

    c. May include prerequisite courses (other than a remedial course)

  2. Include competency-based applied learning that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employable skills, technical skills, and occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of an industry, including entrepreneurship of an individual.

  3. A program of study that involves a multiyear sequence of courses that integrates core academic knowledge with technical and occupational knowledge to provide students with a pathway to postsecondary education and careers.


The mission of CTE is to provide industry-linked programs and services that enable all individuals to reach their career goals in order to achieve economic self-sufficiency, compete in the global marketplace, and contribute to California’s economic prosperity.

Vision: CTE will engage every student in high-quality, rigorous, and relevant educational pathways and programs, developed in partnership with business and industry, promoting creativity, innovation, leadership, community service, and lifelong learning, and allowing students to turn their “passions into paychecks” - their dreams into careers.

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Updated on by Michael Phillips Ii