February is Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month®, a celebration of the importance of CTE for all students hosted by the Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE). But what does high-quality CTE look like? ACTE’s Program of Study Framework outlines elements and more than ninety supporting criteria to answer this question for all grade levels.
ACTE’s framework offers a detailed view of what constitutes high-quality career and technical education but intentionally avoids prescribing specific resources or tools. That’s where we come in! As you prepare to celebrate Career and Technical Education Month, consider using these grade-level-specific ideas and practical edtech tools to introduce students to career pathways and build essential technical skills throughout their K-12 education.
Career and Technical Education in Elementary School
Introduce and integrate technology to teach digital literacy, collaboration, and creativity—all skills students will need as professionals. Technology tools incorporate play to teach basic skills such as coding and online safety.
- Scratch (reviewed here) makes it easy for even the youngest students to create stories, animations, and games by dragging and dropping code bars. It introduces students to the fundamentals of coding, such as sequence and variables, without having to learn or understand code. This is particularly relevant to the CTE curriculum as it helps develop problem-solving and logical thinking skills. There’s even a simplified version of the tool called ScratchJr for younger students ages five to seven.
- Seesaw (reviewed here) offers many features that integrate the core components of career and technical education into a safe learning space. Use the library to find and share interactive lessons on digital literacy and online safety, or teach students how to create and reflect upon their academic growth through digital portfolios.
CTE for Middle Schoolers
In middle school, students build on the basic foundations taught in elementary school and begin to make connections about using technology for real-world purposes.
- The Google CS First (reviewed here) curriculum takes your students’ coding skills to the next level. Classes include one-hour lessons and multi-day units that integrate content from across the curriculum. The one-hour lessons are self-guided and don’t require any coding knowledge.
- Ask students to use templates in Canva for Education (reviewed here) to explore careers of interest. Templates such as this career planner guide students through researching a chosen career and include areas where students can study and share the skills necessary for their chosen career.
CTE in High School
High school students examine possible careers more deeply, learn how to integrate technology skills in real-world situations, and may begin learning advanced coding.
- Google Applied Digital Skills Curriculum (reviewed here) provides free lessons that teach students and teachers practical digital skills necessary for current and future jobs. Join a class as a teacher and assign lessons to students, or students can participate as independent learners without needing a class code. Lessons cover topics like technology at work, ethics, equal access to technology, and more. Printable certificates are available upon successful completion of each lesson.
- MIT App Inventor is a visual programming tool that teaches students how to design Android, iOS, and tablet apps in less than thirty minutes. Teaching units integrate computational thinking, artificial intelligence, and tutorials for different ability levels. MIT App Inventor also has a YouTube channel with playlists and tutorials to support its
These tools and others shared on TeachersFirst help bring CTE to life and allow you to support students as they learn real-world skills and explore future careers. Career and Technical Education Month is a perfect time to integrate these resources and prepare students for future success.
How do you recognize Career and Technical Education Month in your classroom? We would love to hear your ideas and suggestions as we learn together.