Techniques

From September 2025 through May 2026, Techniques followed educators, program leaders and advocates as they worked through some of CTE’s most enduring questions: What does it take to build pathways that reach every learner? How do learning spaces and experiences shape what students believe is possible? As ACTE marks 100 years of service, these questions feel more relevant than ever. The best CTE stories are never only about programs.

This article appears in Techniques as part of a new spotlight on student voices in CTE. Duncan Felch is a junior at Morris County School of Technology in Denville, New Jersey. To change public perception, CTE programs must meet families where they are: on social media. Many programs use CTE Month® as a catalyst for digital storytelling, but advocacy must be a year-round endeavor. Video content is a powerful tool for communication and outreach.

In an era when workforce readiness, real-world skills and meaningful career exploration are more critical than ever, career and technical education stands as a powerful bridge between education and industry. Yet awareness remains a challenge. That narrative is changing. At the 2026 Central California Builders Exchange (CCBE) Design Build Competition, CTE wasn’t explained but experienced.

Perceptions of career and technical education are changing. At Butler Tech, in southwest Ohio, perceptions of CTE changed when students, families, and communities began seeing success in ways that were visible, credible, and sustainable. Our visitors arrive expecting to see students in classrooms. They leave having met emerging professionals. To facilitate this shift, leaders intentionally focused on four key areas to ensure public perception matched what the students had already accomplished.

In the heat of late August, a woman in her mid-thirties stepped out of her car and onto a high school campus. She was nervous but excited to leave what she considered a “safe” career in insurance for a new adventure as a CTE teacher. Fueled by a dedication to serve her community, this would-be new teacher saw a future for herself — making a difference. But by the end of the following week, two days after the school year began, the teacher resigned.

Planning for and delivering high-quality professional learning in the world of career and technical education is an ever-evolving quest for relevancy. Quite often, CTE teachers are departments of one. And the curricular needs of a health sciences teacher are vastly different from those of the construction trades teacher. This renders content-based professional development — long said to be a nonnegotiable for instructional coaches — nearly impossible.

Career and technical education programs play a vital role in rural communities. They create pathways to high-paying local jobs, and they provide employers with a pipeline of skilled workers for positions they might otherwise have difficulty filling. By enabling rural communities to cultivate their workforce locally, CTE programs support greater community stability and self-sufficiency (iCEV, 2024).

It wasn’t that long ago when I accepted my contract as a first-year educator for a small rural school. My first class had two students; our high school had 46 students in total. The community members’ doubtful words still ring in my ears. “Why did you come here? We’ll be closing in two years, so keep your resume fresh.” I would come to find out they had been saying those same things for the last 15 years and the school had managed to hold on.

RVing offers freedom and flexibility to travel for more than 8 million American households. Hard at work to make sure those experiences are positive, and that recreational vehicle service is performed in a timely manner, are a cadre of certified RV service technicians. RV technicians are responsible for vehicle safety, reliability, and customer satisfaction, and as RV usage continues to grow, demand for trained technicians has increased.

Administrators play a vital role in ensuring that CTE programs can deliver success for students, employers and the community. This microsite, developed by ACTE and sponsored by Pearson, is intended to introduce the CTE system to secondary-level school or district administrators who are new to CTE, including site leaders, curriculum/instructional specialists and others stepping into a CTE oversight role.