New changes to federal career and technical education (CTE) policy require postsecondary institutions to ensure that their CTE offerings are validated by local labor-market demand. Yet, institutions may have minimal knowledge of best practices to draw upon as they carry out the new mandates.
Purpose
WestEd and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are collaborating with the Florida Department of Education to better understand how community and technical colleges align their CTE programming to the labor market.
This research study is designed to answer the following questions through a variety of data sources:
- To what extent can institutional factors and the demand for CTE jobs in the labor market predict students’ CTE course-taking, concentration, and award completion?
- How do community and technical colleges develop, offer, and update market-aligned CTE programs of study?
The project is part of the Accelerating Recovery Research in Community Colleges (ARCC) Network.
Audiences Served
This research study will support postsecondary institutions, particularly community and technical colleges, in better aligning their CTE programs to local labor markets.
Project Activities
Researchers are administering a statewide survey to catalog institutional practices Florida community and technical colleges use to align CTE programming to local labor markets. The survey data are combined with labor-market data and student-level data to examine the relationship between
- institutional practices;
- labor market demand in students’ geographical areas; and
- students’ participation, concentration, and completion in CTE programs.
Case studies of select Florida community and technical colleges will provide a better understanding of institutions’ processes.
Read the research brief Examining Labor Market Variation in CTE Sectors: Evidence From Florida to learn about variations in labor market indicators across CTE providers in Florida and disparate impacts of the pandemic on CTE.
Listen to an ARCC Network podcast episode, How Workforce Education at Community Colleges Can Contribute to Pandemic Recovery. In this episode, Jenna Terrell, Senior Researcher at WestEd and lead analyst on the project, discusses how community colleges are developing programs and supports to serve their workforce students as they emerge from the COVID pandemic.
Read the research brief How Florida Community and Technical Colleges Are Aligning CTE Programming to the Labor Market in a Post-COVID Era to learn about how community and technical colleges in Florida are examining student and economic data, creating processes for program review and market alignment, engaging industries and businesses, and supporting student success in CTE after the pandemic.
Project Director
Angela Estacion
Funder
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Project Duration
7/1/2021–8/1/2024
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