February is CTE Month; Here’s Why That Matters

Every year, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) hosts Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month in February to highlight the importance and impact of CTE on students of all ages. At Digital Promise, our work around career and technical education is a pillar of our commitment to expand opportunity and provide powerful learning experiences for learners. We are excited to have a special opportunity this month to spotlight the key role that CTE programs play in preparing students for a future workforce that is becoming more global than ever before.

Career and technical education programs, which are increasingly available in middle and elementary schools, provide students with the knowledge, training, and technical skills to work across a variety of sectors – from agriculture and construction to business and health sciences.

Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected due to rapid economic, technological, and social changes. Global matters have local implications, and vice versa. It is more critical than ever to foster global competence in students—that is, the ability to understand issues of global significance and to compete, connect, and cooperate on an international scale. Skills around global competence have implications for the workplace, as well as for collective well-being and sustainable development of humanity.

Our CTE work at Digital Promise focuses on that intersection between CTE and global competence. We empower CTE programs to incorporate global competence and global employability skills into their CTE curriculum by offering specialized trainings and free resources—including project templates, sample syllabi, and self-paced modules—to CTE leaders, educators, and students. Ultimately, by giving students opportunities to foster global competence and find purpose in their careers, these future graduates will be highly sought-after and equipped to adapt to increasingly diverse demographic shifts, boost our economy, and solve problems of global significance.

We’re thrilled to continue working with the incredible CTE leaders, educators, and students to build and strengthen CTE programs that will meet the workforce demands of the future. During CTE Month and beyond, we invite you to explore our resources and help us spread the word about the importance of incorporating global skills into CTE.

Here’s how you can get involved:

• Get a high-level overview of Digital Promise’s key tools and resources around global competence and CTE.
• Help us spread the word on social media throughout the month to raise awareness about global competence and CTE.
• Check out this LinkedIn Live recording to hear from CTE educators and thought leaders around the value of global competence.
• Follow Digital Promise on X and LinkedIn to get resources throughout the month and share them with others who might be interested.

We are proud and eager to continue this work with your support!