Why an Externship for Connecticut Educators? What better way than to bring the needs of Connecticut's workforce into the classroom than to allow our educators the time to be in the workplace. Through the externship experience, participating districts will have the opportunity to send CTE teachers and School Counselors into a local workforce partner where they will experience first hand what it's like to be in that industry. This will allow our district partners to enrich their classrooms as well as adequately prepare the students of Connecticut to be a part of the ever expanding field of technology post graduation.

Why Career and Technical Education (CTE)?

• Based on labor market needs, projections show careers in the Health, Information Technology, Manufacturing, and STEM fields will continue to grow through 2026.

• The average annual job openings are as follows: Manufacturing - 2800, STEM - 2200, Health - 7000, Information Technology - 4000. That means that around 16,000 jobs are available each year for our four main CTE industries and we want to assure that we are preparing our students to be qualified and prepared to fill them.

• Some of the main skills associated with these industry placements are: collaboration, cooperation, speaking, listening, executing function, using evidence and innovation. These skills are highlighted in the workforce and should be reflected within our CTE courses.