Catawba County Schools offers 80 course options for students within the Career and Technical Education Program.  For a complete listing and description of courses, scroll through our Course Guide.

In addition to traditional high school courses, Catawba County also offers students within CTE to complete college level classes through Catawba Valley Community College.

Career clusters are groups of occupations in the same field of work that require similar skills. Each cluster contains several smaller groups called career pathways that connect to educational programs, industries, and careers. While a career cluster paints a broad picture of a group of occupations, a pathway helps you focus on and develop a clear, more informed educational plan over time. The structure of the National Career Clusters Framework of 16 career clusters and 73 related career pathways supports your growing career awareness and exploration. Educators, parents, and students can use this document to find out more about the career clusters and career pathways in detail.

This document contains all of the NC Career and Technical Education courses approved by the NC State Board of Education representing all Career Clusters and Pathways.  LEAs should edit this document to publish a local guide reflecting its own Career Clusters, Pathways, and courses. State Staff have assigned these courses based on a State-level perspective.  LEAs may use discretion in over-riding courses based on a locally developed pathway.

The 2018 CTE Essential Standards document was approved by the North Carolina State Board of Education in October 2017 and goes into effect for the 2018-2019 academic year. The document contains program area and course descriptions and links to essential standards by course. This information was previously part of the Career and Technical Education Standard Course of Study Guide, but has been revised as part of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort and emphasis on Essential Standards. Local Education Agency (LEA) CTE administrators work with individual schools to select appropriate courses from among those in this document.