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What is a career and technical education (CTE) development framework?

Schools and educators use a career and technical education or CTE framework as the development model to train students for vocational careers. This framework should do four things.

First, it defines development requirements, categories, and job skills across the various offered career development pathways at a school. Second, it should provide definitions and standards for the skill development phases used as students gain proficiency across these pathways.

Next, we need an effective assessment model in the framework to ensure that we place students in the right development phases for their proficiency level. Finally, and most important, it should integrate and enable other related development programs and community systems required by everyone during development. Here is more detail on these four items.

A CTE development framework will define the career pathways and job categories in the program

One of the first components of a CTE development framework are the job categories, skills and associated pathways that the overall program will address. An effective framework will present these comprehensively and will also show the relationships and interconnections across pathways.

Generally, most states will define their CTE Framework. Here is the one for California and here is the one for Florida. There are also some efforts to standardize on a national level.

An effective CTE development framework will define a progression model

Next, an effective CTE development framework will define the levels and phases in its programs based on proficiency and the associated needs of students in that level or phase. CTE programs are most successful when you group students of similar skill levels together.

Similar to the way sports teams do it, this helps optimize development and makes it possible to most effectively provide support for the performance requirements of the level.

For example, it would not make sense to put an NFL coach in football in charge of a youth Pop Warner team. This seems straightforward in athletics, but many CTE teams do not define their development levels, or they simply use the grade level, and this can lead to these inefficiencies.

This also works in reverse by the way. It does not make sense to put a youth Pop Warner player on an NFL roster either. Further, the phase level will also impact the supporting CTE components, such as curriculum, level of teacher and training environment as well. Below a are some of the most impacted items.

• The CTE curriculum
• Use of instructional methods
• Type and skill level of Instructor
• Assessment and planning methods
• Training environments and physical centers

The CTE framework should have a program wide assessment system

The framework should have a comprehensive assessment system. The assessment system should evaluate skill expertise rather than simply skill familiarity or knowledge. The goal of this is to ensure students are in the right development phase to best continue their development. This tool should also help with planning training initiatives to improve performance.

A CTE development framework should integrate and enhance other technical development and community systems

A developing CTE student will require many technical skills in order to become proficient. As a result, all of their training will not come from the same school, program or source. However, the best CTE development frameworks will consider this and will have defined integrations into other technical training systems. An example would be integrations for professional certifications in a certain pathway. Without these, there will often be gaps and overlaps in training that can impact or slow the development of students.

This also goes for community systems and the businesses within the framework jurisdiction. A properly designed CTE development framework will not only integrate, it will also enhance those supporting systems both economically, as well as for everyone involved from students to businesses.

Next Steps

Now that you understand CTE frameworks perhaps it is time to adopt the right CTE framework for your school or program. CyberForward Academy collaborates with educators to develop cutting-edge CTE programs. Discover our educator pathway or schedule a meeting to explore opportunities for potential partnerships.