“Career and technical education” is organized into educational activities that:

• Offer a sequence of courses that:
  • Provides individuals with rigorous academic content and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions, which may include high-skill, high-wage and in-demand industry sectors or occupations, which shall be, at the secondary level, aligned with the challenging state academic standards; 
  • Provides technical skill proficiency or a recognized postsecondary credential, which may include an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree; and
  • May include prerequisite courses (other than a remedial course);

• Include competency-based, work-based, or other applied learning that supports the development of academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, employability skills, technical skills, occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of an industry, including entrepreneurship, of an individual;
• To the extent practicable, coordinate between secondary and postsecondary education programs through programs of study, which may include coordination through articulation agreements, early college high school programs, dual or concurrent enrollment program opportunities, or other credit transfer agreements that provide postsecondary credit or advanced standing; and
• May include career exploration as early as the middle grades.

• Kansas’ implementation of the modernized National Career Clusters Framework will
• increase alignment to state economic and workforce priorities/data
• improve connections between education and workforce systems
• inspire learners to explore and prepare for high-skill, high-demand and high-wage occupations across the State

The Kansas CTE Model employs a four-level organizational framework: Industries, Clusters, Pathways, and Strands.

• Industries serve as the highest-level organizing categories representing major economic sectors that drive Kansas's workforce demands.
• Clusters are broad groups of educational programs for occupations that share common knowledge and skill requirements.
• Pathways represent individual programs of study designed to prepare students for specific high-skill, high-demand and high wage career areas.
• Strands are specialized content areas within pathways that focus on distinct occupational groupings or technical skill sets.

In Kansas, we focus on six industries. Occupations are then organized around knowledge and skills that have common characteristics and job duties, known as career clusters. Kansas identifies a total of 13 broad career clusters. Additionally, 31 career pathways represent the career, education and training options available to students in each of these industries. For illustrative purposes, please find the Kansas Careers Industries, Clusters and Pathways model.