Career & Technology Education (CTE)

What is CTE?

Colorado CTE provides quality educational programs emphasizing core academic content, post secondary & workforce readiness competencies, technical skills, and seamless transition to further education or employment. CTE ensures a thriving Colorado economy by providing relevant and rigorous education that is connected, responsive and real.

Today's innovative career and technical education (CTE), previously known as vocational education, prepares youth and adults for a wide range of high-wage, high-skill, high-demand careers. First and foremost it is about high school and college education that provides students with:

• Academic subject matter taught with relevance to the real world
• Employability skills, from job-related skills to workplace ethics
• Education pathways that help students explore interests and careers

The Colorado CTE website houses all of the current standards for each content area.

Through this process, the occupational standards and competencies were grouped into CTE content areas:

• Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy
• Business, Marketing and Public Administration
• Hospitality, Human Services and Education (Family and Consumer Sciences)
• Health Science, Criminal Justice and Public Safety
• STEM, Arts, Design and Information Technology
• Skilled Trades and Technical Sciences
• Alternative Cooperative Education (ACE)

These content areas have been aligned and verified with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics; and reading, writing and communication. Additionally, all CTE content areas are aligned where appropriate to Colorado standards for science; social studies; health and physical education; postsecondary and workforce readiness; music; visual arts, theater, dance and world languages.