Industry Certification

Industry certifications can be either required or highly desirable by industry and giver your students an advantage when entering the workforce. Other certificates may provide an indicator of skills mastery while not being as recognized/valued in the industry. Your Advisory Board should support the identification of which certifications are most relevant in the current or future markets.

Essential Elements of High Quality CTE :

Sustained Investments and Funding through Mutual Agreements must be present to encourage regional alliances along with industry sector strategies, especially with a focus on current and/or emerging high-skill, high-wage, and/or high-demand occupations. This includes but is not limited to Kindergarten through grades twelve (K–12) Education, Adult Education, Higher Education, Labor, Economic Development Councils, Chambers of Commerce, Workforce Development Boards, career advisory boards, and regional industry alliances aligned by sector that lead to an industry-recognized credential or certificate, postsecondary training, apprenticeship, and/or employment.

Strong Partnerships with Industry and appropriate employers must be developed to inform and improve CTE program design, instruction and work-based learning activities; as well as, ensure that career pathway programs in all grade levels, organizations and apprenticeship programs continue to meet the workforce demands.

Essential Elements: CDE Guiding Policy Principles to Support Student-Centered K-14+ Pathways

To ensure that this element is being met, rubrics and self assessments have been created for the Perkins (pg. 5, 7) and CTEIG (pg. 12, 24) grants with the following basic criteria:

All CTE pathway students have the opportunity to achieve at least one capstone, industry-recognized certification that qualifies them for entry-level employment.
All technical assessments are nationally benchmarked and include a skills-based component.
All CTE programs lead to postsecondary education or training, employment, or postsecondary degree.
Collects all CTE student survey data on postsecondary choices and success. Follows up with students one year after high school to determine outcomes of program.
Data informs program improvement.

Examples

List of industry-recognized certifications available for students within the CTE pathway, number of students in capstone course(s), number of students taking exam/assessment, and number of students achieving certification.
Description of organization providing exam(s), general content of exam(s), portability of certification.
Type of employment opportunities for which each exam qualifies students.
List of postsecondary education, training, employment, or postsecondary degree options for each CTE program.
Student surveys for postsecondary education, training, or employment plans.