Sustainable and Equitable CTE Recruitment Practices
Sustainable and Equitable CTE Recruitment Practices
Advance CTE serves as a leading voice in supporting Career Technical Education leaders to communicate the value of CTE to learners and families effectively and build statewide practice to support equitable recruitment into CTE programs.
About the Initiative
Since 2017, Advance CTE has served as a leading national voice in supporting Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders to effectively communicate the value of CTE to learners and families and build statewide practice to support equitable recruitment into CTE programs.
While enrollment in CTE programs has been resilient in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, it has ultimately remained stagnant over the last decade despite its importance to our nation’s economy and workforce, in part because of outdated perceptions and lack of awareness and understanding of CTE programs. Developing effective, equitable recruitment practices that fully empower and inform learners about the value and benefits of CTE is critical to increasing participation in CTE programs.
This work is grounded in two rounds of national research to find out the messages and themes that most resonate with learners and their families, with the latter round of research focused on ensuring tested messages equitable reach historically marginalized learners and families.
In addition to sharing the research and supporting resources, Advance CTE has organized and supported four cohorts of states to implement these messages into their communications work and to pilot innovative models for equitable recruitment as part of larger work to build sustainable systems that increase both the quantity and diversity of learners in CTE programs.
This work has also extended to support of trusted sources for information about CTE, specifically school counselors and career advising professionals. In 2018, Advance in partnership with a former school counselor, a State CTE Director and an advisory committee created Empowering Students through Career Technical Education and Career Advising , an interactive workshop designed as an introduction to the value of CTE and career advising. The workshop was released as a public resource in Summer 2022.
This work has been conducted with the generous support of the Siemens Foundation.
Impact
Advance CTE has impacted thousands of CTE leaders through presentations of its messaging research and communications planning workshops at the local, state and national level. Empowering Students through Career Technical Education and Career Advising has been delivered in over 30 states in in-person and virtual formats.
Advance CTE has developed a full suite of communications planning and ready-made design templates to aid CTE leaders in implementing the messaging research.
Additionally, Advance CTE’s state cohorts have supported fifteen states in developing statewide recruitment tools and structures, including video series in Utah and Colorado, a statewide social media guide in Maryland, ambassador programs in New Hampshire and Minnesota, a career advising professional development course for rural educators in Alaska, and more.
Ultimately, we seek for these messages to reach millions of learners so that every learner has the opportunity to be aware of and feel welcome to participate in a CTE program.
