Career and Technical Education
Career and technical education (CTE) programs in Virginia public schools serve more than 640,000 students in one or more CTE courses in grades 6-12. These programs are designed to prepare young people for productive futures while meeting the commonwealth's need for well-trained and industry-certified technical workers.
Virginia acknowledges the importance of career and technical education to students and the commonwealth through diploma seals awarded by the Board of Education, by recognizing industry credentialing in its diploma requirements, and through the use of Career Pathways as an integral part of the newly required Academic and Career Plan.
Virginia 17 Career Clusters
Career Clusters help students investigate careers and design their courses of study to advance their career goals. For this reason, Virginia has adopted the nationally accepted structure of career clusters, career pathways and sample career specialties or occupations, as well as created a 17th Energy Cluster.
A Career Cluster is a grouping of occupations and broad industries based on commonalities. Within each career cluster, there are multiple career pathways that represent a common set of skills and knowledge, both academic and technical, necessary to pursue a full range of career opportunities within that pathway – ranging from entry level to management, including technical and professional career specialties. Based on the skills sets taught, all CTE courses are aligned with one or more career clusters and career pathways.