Analyze in a paragraph Career and Technical Education (CTE) by giving a succinctsummary of your understanding of this area of education.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) refers to the practice of allowing students who attend
post-secondary institutions, high school, and middle school the opportunity to learn specific
career skills. In most cases, students in high school have not yet made up their minds on the kind
of careers that they want to pursue for the rest of their lives. However, CTE allows students to
specialize in specific career skills such as hospitality, health science, sales, and other high-
demand careers. By the time a student graduates from high school, they already possess skills
that allow them to fit in the job market (Inside Schools, 2011). Students earn certifications in
their careers of choice, and they are enabled to start practicing in these fields upon graduating
from high school without necessarily joining college. However, students who join CTE and are
unsure about their career paths can still join college and pursue other careers that they qualify or
are eligible for based on their high school grades. Thus, CTE does not tie students o careers and
force them to stick to them for the rest of their lives. If by any chance, a student changes their
mind, the door is open; they can still pursue a different career field.
b. Evaluate in a paragraph how the principles of UDL support career and technical
education.
Career and technical education accommodate all types of learners regardless of age; the child
learner, the learner who is almost an adult as well as the adult learner. Through the three
principles of UDL, these learners are exposed to multiples forms of representation, engagement,

action, and representation. The universal design for learning also helps instructors meet the needs
of students with disabilities who struggle to consume content, receive, act upon or even
demonstrate what they have learned. Thus, UDL is ideal for instruction in schools that offer CTE
because it meets the needs of all learners. Also, the kind of activities that students who engage in
CTE take part in is kinesthetic in nature. As such, learners are allowed an opportunity to engage
with each other in multiple forms, express themselves as well as engage with instructional
content as per their learning style. UDL focuses on individual learners, and this increases the
opportunities for their engagement as well as academic success. UDL is a framework that is
accommodative of all students, and CTE learners are not an exception. The framework is learner-
centered, and it provides instructors with guidance on how to engage all learners in multiple
ways to facilitate learning in their different areas of specialization. Instructors also receive
guidance in how to package content and represent it in multiple forms to allow each learner an
opportunity to learn as well as the different forms through which learners can act or demonstrate
that they have learned. As such, UDL presents support to career technical education by providing
the necessary guidance for instructing and learning to take place.
c. Summarize in a paragraph the relationship between the goals of CTE, learner
motivation, and acquisition of 21st-century skills.
Curriculum implementation is one of the duties that instructors must fulfill. The way in which a
learner is affected by the curriculum determines whether they will be motivated to learn.
Students who take CTE are able to connect their interest to a selected field and the importance or
role of other subjects in the career field of their choice. For instance, a student who is
specializing in hospitality will be in a position to know why studying English is important to
their success in the career field that they have an interest. Students become invested in their

learning, and they set goals that make sense to them and that are connected to their careers.
Students acquire employable skills, and they acquire additional skills such as professional
etiquette and communication skills, which are specific to their career fields. They also acquire
21 st -century skills, which are tailored to suit the different careers that different students choose
(Loera et al., 2013). The employable or 21 st -century skills fit perfectly into the CTE curriculum.
Since they affect students positively in that they relate to the students’ career choices, these
learners are motivated. They do not struggle to find the connection between what is being studied
in school and their career aspirations because the subjects are driven towards helping them
acquire mastery in their career fields of choice. Students are motivated as they acquire an
education that shapes them into productive young adults who have employable skills. Students
who do not perform well academically do not struggle with qualifying for college since they
already possess employable skills.
d. Describe in a paragraph, or by using a table or some other visual, what you learned
by reviewing your state’s Department of Education webpage on CTE and/or your
local school district’s utilization of CTE.
The State of New York has many schools that offer different CTE programs that are aligned
to the labor market demand. There are State-approved CTE programs, and students who
successfully complete them are eligible for CTE Regents diploma (New York State
Department of Education, 2021). This shows that the Department of Education in New York
state is committed to ensuring that students who enroll for CTE receive support from the
government. Also, the state has guidelines on certification to instruct the CTE curriculum. An
instructor receives CTE certification and is authorized to teach a specific CTE subject area in
a public school within the state. They must have acquired teacher education for them to be

qualified to teach in CTE classrooms. Also, they must have taken an approved teacher
education program that is approved by an accrediting agency recognized within the state to
be eligible for certification. Thus, there is a formal structure on how the CTE curriculum is
implemented. This curriculum is offered to students from seventh to twelfth grades. The
programs and courses offered under the CTE curriculum are designed to equip students with
skills in different occupational fields such as vehicle maintenance, culinary, and cosmetology
(New York State Department of Education, 2021). Emphasis is placed mainly on
occupational work experience, and students who receive these certificates graduate with the
required expertise to function in specific technical fields.
References

Inside Schools. (2011, November 29). High School: What is Career and Technical
Education? (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://youtu.be/3pVDGCuRWsQ
Loera, G., Nakamoto, J., Oh, Y. J., & Rueda, R. (2013). Factors that promote motivation and
academic engagement in a career technical education context. Career and Technical
Education Research, 38(3), 173-190.
New York State Department of Education. (2021). Career and Technical Education
Certification:Certfiication:OTI:NYSED. Retrieved 28 January 2021, from
http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/certificate/cte/home.html