Your Place in the Framework
Your Place in the Framework
Maximizing the potential of the National Career Clusters® Framework requires commitment and collaboration from actors at all levels of education and industry.
Your work and voice matter in realizing our vision of a modern National Career Clusters® Framework that is responsive to both learners and industry while providing flexibility for the future and for the needs of each state and community. We are committed to working with all partners to ensure high-quality implementation of the Framework for all users.
Achieving this vision requires shared commitment and collaboration among leaders and practitioners who are using and affected by the Framework, including those at the national, state, and local levels. It also requires connection to and across education, workforce development, industry, and philanthropy. Only together can we realize the possibility and aspiration of a new career preparation ecosystem that gives each learner limitless opportunity for career success through CTE.
State CTE Leaders
In each state and territory, state CTE leaders set the vision for the extent and the pace of Framework adoption and implementation. The modernized Framework is designed to spark innovation to advance numerous CTE systems, policy, and practice. Integrating Framework design and language into state systems can make state CTE program design and data more consistent with a state or regional labor market.
Advance CTE is providing active support to state CTE agency staff as you determine when and how to best update systems to align with the modernized Framework. We are offering resources and convening spaces to meet states at their pace of implementation. We are also working with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education as it updates federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V) reporting guidelines to align with the new Framework, effective for data reported regarding the 2025-2026 academic year onward.
- Organize all education and workforce initiatives by Career Clusters at the state level to support personalized and responsive pathways that reflect labor market needs and learner interests.
- Design intentional, cross-sector programs of study with shared content and seamless transitions to reduce misalignment across systems.
- Align data collection systems, policies, and reporting across education and workforce systems to enable cross-sector analysis and decision-making.
- Create cross-organizational communication structures with clear decision-making authority to enable transparent, coordinated messaging across sectors.
- Integrate into advising structures to ensure learners have access to the most up-to-date information and resources
Industry & Workforce Development Professionals
When industry representatives provide education partners input on labor market trends and skill needs for their industry sector, they help to achieve a Framework that is a responsive, sustainable pipeline for prepared, diverse talent in high-wage, high-skill, and in-demand fields. Workforce development professionals can use the Framework to understand common language between industry and education and help employees from all sectors align existing professional experience and transferable skills with education opportunities for reskilling and upskilling.
- Collaborate with state and local Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders to contribute to and analyze labor market and talent pipeline information and trends.
- Collaborate with state and local CTE leaders to develop and review standards, curriculum, and credentials aligned to Career Clusters and Sub-Clusters.
- Organize all education and workforce initiatives and language by Career Clusters at the state level to support personalized and responsive pathways at reflect labor market needs and learner interests.
- Align data collection systems, policies, and reporting across education and workforce systems to enable cross-sector analysis and decision-making.
- Support program design and work-based learning that encourages cross-disciplinary learning and collaborative delivery models, fostering more integrated and innovative education experiences.
- Integrate Framework across employer-connected experiences and processes, including work-based learning, hiring description, skillbuilding/continuing education, etc.
- Industry Sector Profiles
- Crosswalk: Original and Modernized Career Clusters Framework
- Crosswalk: CIP, SOC, NAICS, Career Cluster, and Sub-Cluster
- Dashboard: Top Employer-Requested Credentials
Leveraging Labor Market Information Through the National Career Clusters Framework
Systems Alignment Through the National Career Clusters Framework
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Local CTE Administrators
Once a state decides which aspects of the Framework to adopt, local CTE leaders, including district-level CTE directors, superintendents and principals, postsecondary deans and provosts, and others, are important partners in both informing educators about the path ahead and spurring innovation in local programs of study design. Local CTE leaders also serve as important communicators and collaborators to employers and industry to ensure that the implemented Framework truly is responsive to and reflective of local, regional, and state economic needs.
Advance CTE is partnering with national organizations connected to CTE to cocreate and share resources providing guidance on Framework implementation and creative, responsive program of study design.
- Adjust and align local CTE program curriculum and experiences to align to the Framework and meet the needs of the labor market and regionally specific talent pipelines.
- Align terminology, messaging, and programs to support program recruitment and career advising efforts.
- Use the Framework to support alignment between local secondary and postsecondary educational opportunities including youth/pre-apprenticeship, early postsecondary opportunities such as dual and concurrent enrollment, and seamless transfer to postsecondary success.
- Engage with local employers to support advisory boards, work-based learning, curriculum and resource development, and other connections to the workforce.
- Use storytelling and strategic messaging to communicate the transformational impact of the Framework for learners and practitioners, elevating examples of access, mobility, and success across all populations.
- Develop flexible programs of study that use interdisciplinary, adaptive, and personalized approaches, including through the Cross-Cutting Career Clusters, to meet individual learner goals and evolving workforce needs.
- Collect, organize, and use data organized by Career Cluster from all education and workforce programs to personalize pathways, identify needed supports, and align programs with evolving industry and community needs. Then, equip practitioners and the public to understand and leverage data.
CTE Instructors
The modernized Framework is designed to spur state policy innovation that can expand course instruction options for secondary, postsecondary, and workforce professionals. This modernization also encourages renewed partnership and collaboration among local CTE leaders, employers and industry, and CTE-connected partners such as career advising professionals and community organizations to remove instructional silos and be responsive to state and community economic needs.
Instructors are encouraged to become familiar with the Framework to be prepared to communicate its structure and benefits to institutional leaders as well as learners and families.
Adjustments to and expansions of programs of study will emerge as states pursue long-term implementation of the Framework, and instructors are encouraged to start using the Framework when opportunities for program change emerge. Advance CTE is partnering with national organizations connected to CTE to cocreate and share resources providing guidance on Framework implementation and creative, responsive program of study design.
- Adjust and align local CTE program curriculum and experiences to align to the Framework, encourage cross-disciplinary learning and delivery, and meet the needs of the labor market and regionally specific talent pipelines.
- Use the Framework to support alignment between local secondary and postsecondary educational opportunities including youth/pre-apprenticeship, early postsecondary opportunities such as dual and concurrent enrollment, and seamless transfer to postsecondary success.
- Engage with local employers to support advisory boards, work-based learning, curriculum and resource development, and other connections to the workforce.
- Develop work-based learning experiences that span multiple Career Clusters to build both foundational and sector-specific skills.
- Use storytelling and strategic messaging to communicate the transformational impact of the Framework on learners’ lives, elevating examples of access, mobility, and success across all populations.
- Ensure all educators and staff are aware of the Framework and how it can be used in career exploration, skillbuilding activities, career advising, etc. for all learners.
- Industry Sector Profiles
- Career Clusters Framework Project One-Pagers for Learners
- Career Clusters Store
- Connecting CTSOs to the Framework
- Guidebook (Spanish): Guía de Marco Nacional de Clústeres de Carrera® Modernizados
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School Counselors & Career Advising Professionals
Once a state decides which aspects of the Framework to adopt, career advising professionals and school counselors are key partners in leveraging the Framework as a meaningful structure to empower learners to navigate their career exploration and skill-building journey. The modernized Framework is a tool that is more reflective of the world of work that learners are preparing for and can be a renewed opportunity to advance integrated advising across secondary, postsecondary, and the workforce.
Advance CTE is partnering with national career advising and development organizations to provide support on meaningful integration of the Framework into career advising that can be aligned with each state’s pace of implementation. We will be revising the current Career Interest Survey in the coming months to assist with career advising aligned to the modernized Framework.
- Align terminology, messaging, and programs to support program recruitment and career advising efforts.
- Help learners explore the entirety of the world of work by Cluster or Sub-Cluster.
- Support alignment between local secondary and postsecondary educational opportunities including youth/pre-apprenticeship, early postsecondary opportunities such as dual and concurrent enrollment, and seamless transfer to postsecondary success.
- Develop work-based learning experiences that span multiple Career Clusters to build both foundational and sector-specific skills.
- Provide guidance that supports program design that encourages cross-disciplinary learning and collaborative delivery models, fostering more integrated and innovative education experiences.
- Use storytelling and strategic messaging to communicate the transformational impact of the Framework on learners’ lives, elevating examples of access, mobility, and success across all populations.
- Ensure all educators and staff are aware of the Framework and how it can be used in career exploration, skillbuilding activities, career advising, etc. for all learners.
- Use disaggregated, linked data to identify gaps and track progress toward ensuring all learners can access and succeed in high-opportunity careers. Leverage data not just for compliance, but to promote quality, transparency, and opportunity.
- Industry Sector Profiles
- The Basics: The National Career Clusters Framework
- Career Clusters Framework Project One-Pagers for Learners
- Career Clusters Store
Flexible Career Pathways Through the National Career Clusters Framework
The following resources are currently under development to support school counselors and career advising professionals:
- More tools for using The National Career Clusters Framework for career exploration and development
Career Technical Student Organizations & National Partners
National organizations are integral partners for providing insights on recommended policy changes, implementation priorities, and program of study design that are specific to their affected Cluster(s). The Framework provides opportunities for Career Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) to expand their offerings and membership as new programs of study emerge. We will be working with each CTSO to identify the Clusters that best align with their organizational priorities.
National organizations should be responsive to the speed that states implement the Framework. Advance CTE is enthusiastic about partnering with national organizations connected to CTE to cocreate and share resources providing guidance on Framework implementation and creative, responsive program of study design.
- Examine educational experiences beyond CTE that can incorporate the Career Cluster Framework into curriculum and connected experience design and taxonomy.
- Include information about the Framework in materials about CTE and career pathways.
- Expand recruitment and participation policy to include learners who have not historically been served by CTSOs and CTE.
- Support program chapter, or initiative experience design that encourages cross-disciplinary learning and collaborative delivery models, fostering more integrated and innovative education experiences.
- Develop updated competitive event criteria and technical standards aligned to the Framework, then support implementation at the state and local level.
- Align curricular or instructional materials with updated Clusters
- Engage with employers to expand national partnerships and align chapter or initiative activities that reflect labor market needs and the interdisciplinary nature of the Framework.
Career Clusters
Click each Cluster for Cluster definitions and implementation resources.
