Career and Technical Education Month
February is Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month, a time to celebrate the achievements of CTE students, educators, partners and organizations while recognizing the role CTE plays in preparing learners for college and career success.
At Cengage Group, we are proud to be a market leader in CTE, offering over 200 CTE titles and a wide range of resources across K-12 and Higher Ed. Our textbooks, simulations and labs are aligned to industry standards, helping students earn industry-recognized credentials and equipping them with 21st-century skills and real-world experience. Over the past year, we have made significant efforts to expand CTE offerings in popular clusters such as Business, Computing, Health Science and Agriscience, providing teachers with more resources, introducing new engaging tools and staying up to date with the latest industry trends and certifications.
According to our 2024 Employability Report, 52% of college graduates entering the workforce are working in jobs that don’t make use of their degree or credential, with 70% wishing their K-12 education promoted or exposed them to alternative learning pathways. This data strongly emphasizes the insufficiency of exposure to alternative options, such as CTE, among adolescents, which in turn limits their opportunities for exploration and growth in non-traditional career paths.
Further research from the American Institutes for Research team, shows that those who enrolled in CTE programs are more likely to be employed after high school and often report higher job satisfaction; largely due to the practical skills and industry-specific knowledge gained through CTE training, making them well-suited for immediate workforce entry.
Beyond the statistics, the stories we hear from students and educators truly demonstrate the significant impact CTE education can have in shaping the trajectory of students’ lives. Read on to learn more about Madeleine E., an eighth-grade student at Chapin Middle School in South Carolina, Rikki W., Cengage CTE Author, and Andrea W., Business Education Teacher at Bishop Dwenger High School.
Gaining Real-World Experience
Madeleine's proactive approach to her education has paved the way for a successful future. In middle school, she made the strategic decision to take Fundamentals of Computing, allowing her to have more flexibility in her high school schedule and enroll in Health Science and CTE courses. She shared that, “by taking health science and medical terminology classes in high school, I can graduate with certifications that are useful and relevant in the healthcare industry. Acquiring these certifications will allow me to work in healthcare and gain hands-on experience while also pursuing a degree in exercise science. Earning multiple certifications will provide me with a competitive edge when applying to colleges and scholarships as it demonstrates my perseverance, dedication and most importantly my competence.”
Networking has played a significant role in Madeleine's education journey. As a member of the HOSA Future Health Professionals Chapin High School chapter, she has had the privilege of participating in the Competitive Events Program at the State and International levels. Madeleine explained that, “attending these conferences have allowed me to network with other HOSA members from across the world, meet with admission representatives from various colleges and network with the vendors who supply the products my teachers use in the classroom.” In addition to her HOSA experience, Madeleine also secured an opportunity to job shadow at a South Carolina Health Science Educators Conference. Reflecting on her experience, she shared, “job shadowing at the conference allowed me the opportunity to assist their board with various jobs and see the dedication of health science teachers to enhance their teaching strategies. I enjoyed meeting the vendors and publishers at the conferences. I feel as if students can have a voice in the products available to our teachers and the publishers seemed interested in what students thought about their products.”
After graduating high school, Madeleine aspires to be a college athletic trainer and dreams of becoming a physician assistant. Her dedication to pursuing a career in healthcare, combined with her proactive approach to education and networking, sets her on a path to achieve her goals.
Engaging, Interactive Learning
Prior to joining Cengage as a CTE Author, Rikki worked as an educator in California, motivating high school students interested in working in healthcare. Her students’ enthusiasm for the content she was presenting in the classroom inspired her to take her work further and become an author. She shared that, “early in my teaching career, I started building exciting assignments, games and activities for my students that were developed from the subject matter in Sports Medicine Essentials. Now, 15 years later, I’m co-authoring the fourth edition of the text. When Dr. Clover asked me to become a co-author, I was motivated to create concepts and curriculum that encouraged students to have fun learning and exploring.”
With her extensive experience, Rikki understands the challenges that CTE students face in a rapidly changing world. To help students overcome these challenges, she assists them in creating career plans early on and educates them on how to stay updated with requirements, providing them with greater confidence when applying to highly competitive programs. “In the new edition of Sports Medicine Essentials, we have added more career paths for different levels of education. The goal is to introduce students to various health-care related careers so they can start building career plans and start researching them early on.”
Looking ahead, Rikki shared her excitement about the impact that new technologies, like AI, will make in giving students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills in real-world scenarios. “Teachers are already able to utilize AI voice-overs to create patient interactions. I’m also seeing the ability for teachers to instruct non-English learners with translation apps simultaneously and instantaneously.” Rikki also envisions future developments in CTE, where courses would require observation hours or internship experiences as part of pathway completion. “I believe this will help students get involved in their local communities and start building their own professional networks. This also provides professional work experiences to list on their resumes for entry-level positions.”
Career-Connected Teaching
Andrea has been an educator for over 20 years and specializes in marketing, Microsoft Office and work-based learning. She shared that, “I was motived to teach CTE because I enjoy exposing students to business concepts and teaching them how to use their skills in an industry setting.” She added that CTE programs are unique in the way they help students develop soft skills. Andrea explained that many of her students have hesitations about speaking on the phone. “CTE programs help develop confidence with this task, teaching phone etiquette. Additionally, developing technical skills with Microsoft Office, especially Excel, prepares students to use applications in the workforce.” Andrea has also seen increased success for CTE students who participate in Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). “FBLA has given students the opportunity to travel and has increased their confidence in verbal communication and challenged them to try new activities outside of the classroom.”
As part of Andrea’s role as an educator, she serves as a motivator for students. She does this by setting high expectations and encouraging learners to meet those goals, respecting students’ strengths and weaknesses, involving them in decision making and connecting with students on a personal level.
Over the years, Andrea has seen CTE evolve quite a bit to meet the changing needs of learners and the job market by building stronger partnerships and connections with universities and employers. “I regularly meet with graduates and employers to discuss what their needs are and how we, at the high school level, can help make beneficial changes. For example, our graduates said they were lacking in computer science and programming knowledge. Based on this feedback, I started a computer science program at our school.”
Learn More:
Interested in learning more about CTE and how it can help bridge talent gaps and meet the expectations of the healthcare industry? Join our webinar, “Beyond Clinical Competence: Joining Forces to Equip Health Science Students with Essential Soft Skills,” hosted by National Geographic Learning | Cengage on February 26th. Click here for more details and register to attend.
Discover further insights from CTE educators who are dedicated to empowering students to thrive in the classroom, their communities and beyond in NGL’s teacher spotlight series here.
Learn about last year's CTE celebrations at Cengage Group here.