Seeing Green: CTE as a Catalyst for the Green Workforce is a policy playbook that equips education and workforce leaders with actionable strategies to strengthen pathways into emerging green careers by leveraging the effective structures, mindsets, and collaboration provided through Career Technical Education (CTE).
This policy playbook is designed as a practical guide to help state and local leaders, educators, employers, and partners understand their role in advancing green workforce development through Career Technical Education (CTE). By navigating this playbook, readers can identify practical steps to take in their positions to engage CTE programs, systems, and coalition actors to support green workforce development.
The resource features:
Policy Recommendations and Key Actions for Implementation: The playbook offers seven policy recommendations to strengthen CTE for green workforce development. Each policy recommendation outlines a priority adjustment to existing practice to better connect CTE and the green workforce, details the challenges it addresses, and provides key actions for implementation.
Coalition Groups by Job Title: The coalition group chart assigns key job titles connected to a green workforce-CTE coalition to one of five groups in the CTE ecosystem: state CTE leader, local CTE educator, employer, other organizational partner, and labor market professional.
Coalition Role Description, Heat Map, and Key Responsibilities By Role: The coalition heat map assigns a role to each coalition group—conductor, convener, collaborator, or consultant—that delegates the group’s responsibilities in implementing the recommendations. The key responsibilities by role table outlines general actions each role can take in the policy implementation process.
Examples in Practice: The examples in practice section illustrate how each policy recommendation is being implemented across states and organizations, providing practical models that can be adapted to different contexts.
This playbook was developed through an iterative, field-informed process. This process included a series of virtual roundtables that engaged national, state, and local leaders across education, workforce, and related systems, and were further refined through direct feedback gathered during an in-person green workforce summit held in the fall of 2025, ensuring the guidance reflects both strategic insight and on-the-ground realities.
