Driving Economic Mobility Through Career and Technical Education: Q&A With Angela Estacion and Alisha Hyslop 

February 26, 2025

Career and technical education (CTE) programs are more than an alternative to traditional academic pathways; they are gateways to high-demand careers, hands-on experience, and practical skills that employers seek in today’s economy.

In this Q&A blog celebrating CTE Month, Angela Estacion and Alisha Hyslop reflect on the state of CTE at community and technical colleges and look toward the future of CTE.

Angela Estacion is the Research and Evaluation Director for Economic Mobility, Postsecondary, and Workforce Systems at WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility. She leads a project that examines sub-baccalaureate CTE programs—or programs that result in certificates or associate’s degrees—at community and technical colleges using Florida’s statewide longitudinal data system, labor market data, and case studies.

Alisha Hyslop is the Chief Policy, Research and Content Officer at the Association for Career and Technical Education. She has spent almost 25 years working to advance CTE policy, advocacy, and research efforts. She serves as an advisory board member for the sub-baccalaureate CTE research project in Florida.

AH: CTE encompasses a wide range of programs that prepare and equip students with the skills they need for success in their future careers. CTE opportunities are offered across the education spectrum, starting in some places as early as middle school, and certainly offered in high schools and at the postsecondary level.

By federal definitions, CTE programs are generally thought of as sub-baccalaureate programs—typically certificate and associate degree programs at community and/or technical colleges. CTE programs can prepare students for careers that ultimately require a bachelor’s degree. For example, you might have a high school CTE program that puts students on a pathway to a career in nursing or an engineering program that prepares students to ultimately go on to the postsecondary level and receive a bachelor’s degree.

The programs that have the highest enrollment at the postsecondary level, in the last year of federal reporting, are health science, business management and administration, information technology, and law and public safety. That gives an idea of the breadth of CTE programs that are offered.

AE: It’s also important to note who community and technical colleges—and their CTE programs—most often serve. Community colleges are entry points for many first-generation college students and adult learners. Many community college students have part-time or full-time jobs, family responsibilities, and other caretaking commitments. Due to these responsibilities, these learners require greater flexibility in CTE programming, such as accelerated learning models, evening and weekend classes, and classes that integrate opportunities for work-based learning and connectivity to employers.

AH: Local labor markets are at the foundation of how CTE programs are built and operated in communities. The federal Perkins Act requires postsecondary institutions to conduct a comprehensive local needs assessment. Institutions must look at their local labor market data, student performance and outcomes, the quality of their programs, and how all those pieces are aligned. This includes getting input from local interest holders, such as local business and industry, community-based organizations, and the students and families they serve, to ensure that their CTE programs meet those local needs. This allows students to complete CTE programs with the assurance that jobs will be available in their community, with opportunities to advance through employment.

AE: The crux of our research looks at how community and technical colleges are developing, revising, or closing programs according to regional labor market demands. Through our research, we share information with other partners about strategies for successfully aligning programs to local labor markets.

This connection to local labor markets is important to understand because that’s one way to build economic mobility pathways for students and families, right in the communities they already live in. But it’s not about employment in just any occupation—it’s about creating greater employability in learners to obtain positions that offer a living wage and career trajectories. We’re trying to understand how institutions align CTE programs to the existing and emerging workforce opportunities in local communities to bolster economic mobility.

AH: The top challenge is financial resources. Community and technical colleges are underresourced in general compared to other public higher education sectors, and within those institutions, CTE programs are often the most expensive to operate because they require industry-standard equipment. That can limit access to programs because there isn’t enough space or equipment to offer these programs to everyone who may be interested.

AE: Relatedly, we often hear in our research about the lack of resources for developing critical relationships with local employers and industry leaders. Those relationships are a key part of developing high-quality CTE programs and are crucial for leveraging those emerging opportunities Alisha mentioned. When community and technical colleges don’t have the time or dedicated resources to develop those relationships, it can hinder collaboration with industry advisory boards that are meant to guide CTE alignment to local needs, or it can stymie work-based learning opportunities for students.

AH: Great point, Angela. That connects to my next challenge, which is a shortage of people, especially faculty and support staff. The teacher shortage gets a lot of attention at the K–12 level but not nearly as much attention at the postsecondary level. But it is a real barrier to CTE programs in high-need areas, particularly in areas where private sector salaries are much higher than they are for educators—fields like cybersecurity, where we know there is a huge workforce shortage and a huge need for trained workers. I’ve talked to colleges that have had to close programs or not offer classes for a semester because they can’t get a teacher to stay when they can make three times as much in the private sector. And the teacher shortage challenge is across the board. Addressing the shortage of people is something that institutions are grappling with, but there aren’t a lot of out-of-the-box solutions that can make it work overnight.

AE: Data availability is another challenge to revising and updating CTE programs. Having access to timely and high-quality data is critical to understanding and assessing the impact and alignment of programs. Whether it’s workforce outcomes for students or connections between program offerings and the actual local labor market, those things require data.

AE: For students to access and succeed in CTE programs, they need clear, transparent information about what each program offers and where it leads. Too often, students are forced to make career decisions without knowing critical details—how long a program takes, the cost, what credentials they’ll earn, what jobs they can get afterward, and the expected salary outcomes. Not all students have access to the same guidance or resources to navigate these choices, so institutions must ensure that information is clear, accessible, and easy to act on. When students have the full picture, they can make informed choices that align with their goals and set them on a strong career path.

AH: Along with transparency, I’d say programmatic changes that create stackable credentials for students, which are short-term, often sequenced, credentials that students earn and can build into a higher level credential as a gateway toward a higher paying job. “Stackable credential” is a term that gets used a lot in conversation, but understanding how often students actually move through a sequence of credentials is something that a lot of policymakers, educators, and researchers are looking to improve. If a student starts in a certificate program, can they seamlessly move to an associate degree and then on to a bachelor’s degree if they want to continue to advance? Making sure that alignment is there and that students know those opportunities are there for them is really important.

AE: I completely agree, and this is why advisors are such important resources. Institutions should provide advisors with ongoing training on their respective CTE program offerings and the labor market. Community colleges and technical colleges also need to invest in strengthening partnerships with high schools, adult schools, and community partners to strategically reach out to prospective students. And finally, institutions need to ensure there are funding options for students who pursue CTE programs that are not eligible for FAFSA or traditional financial aid. Partnerships with local workforce systems may be able to support these CTE learners and programs through federal and state workforce funding. College staff at the forefront of recruiting should know how to share those funding options with prospective students. By doing so, they can broaden access to CTE programs.

Visit the Sub-Baccalaureate Career and Technical Education project page to read accompanying research briefs, explore a data dashboard, and listen to a podcast about the findings from this project.