CTE Resources

The Problem CTE programs exist to prepare students for careers that require hands-on skills — welding a joint to code, diagnosing an engine fault, preparing a restaurant-quality dish, reading a…

Most CTE programs have an industry advisory board on paper. Far fewer have one that meaningfully shapes curriculum, opens doors for students, and holds the program accountable for producing graduates…

The cancellation of 19 federal Career-Connected High Schools grants in 2025—$48.6 million in expected funding evaporated overnight—taught CTE programs a hard lesson. Grants launch partnerships. They don't sustain them. When…

When ninth graders at Penn Hills High School walk into the PHorge Robotics lab, they are not sitting through a lecture on theoretical engineering concepts. They are earning an industry…

Here's the problem with the way most CTE programs handle industry certifications: they treat them as a senior-year event. Students spend three and a half years building skills in a…

When engineering students at Philadelphia's Swenson Arts and Technology High School open their PLTW lab kits each fall, they are not completing a textbook exercise. They are building the same…

What NCCER Actually Is The National Center for Construction Education and Research — NCCER — was founded in 1996 by a consortium of major construction companies and industry associations. It…

Hook: Your Lab Has Stations Already — Use Them Deliberately Walk into any CTE shop — electrical, culinary, health sciences, automotive — and you'll see natural work zones: the tool…

If you teach construction trades in a CTE program, NCCER is the credential your students should leave with. Not as a supplement to something else—as the primary credential that tells…