Start the School Year with a Shared Understanding of CTE
As the new school year gets underway, it's a great time to ask a simple question:
How well does your whole school community understand - and talk about - CTE?
Career and Technical Education is often most familiar to CTE teachers, counselors, and coordinators. But classroom teachers, administrators, support staff, and families all play an important role in helping students connect what they're learning today with the opportunities available after high school.
ACTE's free CTE 101 for Counselors Toolkit offers practical, ready-to-use resources that can help schools start the year with more consistent CTE and career messaging.
And despite the name, it's not just for counselors.
A Few Ways to Use It This Fall
Start with your staff
Use ACTE's Busting CTE Myths resources during a back-to-school staff meeting, professional learning day, or staff newsletter.
It's an easy way to address outdated perceptions of CTE and give all educators better language for talking with students and families about today's programs and pathways.
Take a schoolwide look
ACTE's School Reflection Tool can help your team consider:
Where - and how - are students hearing about CTE and career opportunities across their school experience?
Bring administrators, counselors, CTE educators, and classroom teachers into the conversation to identify what's already working and where there may be opportunities to strengthen career awareness.
Make back-to-school communication easier
Use the toolkit's facts, talking points, and resources in the communication you're already doing:
Back-to-school nights / Open house events
Family newsletters
Course and pathway information
School websites and social media
Parent-teacher conferences
Staff communications
There's no need to create everything from scratch.
Give everyone a common message
Consider starting the year by giving staff a simple way to describe CTE:
CTE gives students opportunities to explore careers, apply what they're learning, build real-world skills, and make more informed decisions about what comes next.
Start Small
Building stronger CTE awareness doesn't need to become another schoolwide initiative.
Pick one tool. Share it with your staff. Use it with families. Start a conversation.
Giving more educators clear information and practical language can help make career conversations a more natural part of the school experience - not something that happens only in the CTE classroom or counseling office.
Start the school year off right by exploring ACTE's free CTE 101 Toolkit - and consider how one or two of these resources could support your school this fall.
https://www.acteonline.org/cte-101/cte-101-for-counselors/