The Career and Technical Education Misson

Career and Technical Education (CTE) mission has always been to develop an educated & skilled workforce to keep the United State viable in a global market. At this juncture in US history, CTE is vital to help create a workforce with 21st Century Skills to remain a global leader. The Common Core standards require students to “employ contextualized work-based, project-based, and problem-based learning approaches” to gain workforce readiness skills ("Programs of Study Design Framework," 2010). Since its birth this has been the mission of CTE programs. Signed in to law by Abraham Lincoln, The Morrill Act of 1862 or Land Grant College Act was the birth of Career and Technical Education in the United States. The Morrill Act allowed access to high education to all genders and social classes “in agriculture home economics, mechanical arts and other professions of the time” ("150th anniversary of," 2013). CTE’s fundamental purpose to develop an educated workforce was expanded in the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. The Smith-Hughes Act required standards in teacher training and vocational program development to insure that there was a crucial trained workforce to be able to aid in the economic expansion of the United States.

The United States has always seen the important of CTE in national defense. A stable highly skilled workforce is a base to a stable government and economy. Never was it view more important than in 1958, during the height of the cold war. The National Defense Education Act made funds available to CTE program to be “used exclusively for the training of “highly skilled technicians in recognized occupations requiring scientific knowledge in fields necessary for the national defense” (Oklahoma Department of Career and...

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Goble, D., & Department of Career and Technology Education, (2004). Learning to earn: A history of career and technology education in oklahoma. Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. Retrieved from http://www.okcareertech.org/about/history/excepts-from-the-recently-published-book-by-danney-goble

Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, (2006). Major milestones of career & technology education in oklahoma. Career Tech, (pp. 1-12). Retrieved from http://www.okcareertech.org/educators/cimc/resources/downloads-1/learning-to-earn/learning-to-earn/history_of_careertech_lo_res.pdf/view

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Division of Academic and Technical Education, (2010). Programs of Study Design Framework. Retrieved from website: http://cte.ed.gov/nationalinitiatives/rposdesignframework.cfm